kirkpoore1
Old Oak
I'm building a cart for the medieval group I'm in, so I decided to try building some wooden spoked wheels for it. The cart will have two wheels, and I certainly could have bought them for not too much money ($90 each plus shipping), but I prefer not to be a checkbook artisan even if my methods are more 1940's than 1490's.
Anyway, I started with a book. "Wheelwrighting, A Modern Introduction", by Bruce & Joyce Morrison, written about 2004. It is very much focused on making "modern" wooden wheels, modern being late 19th century and onward with cast hubs, bent wood rims, and steel or rubber tires. I was going for turned all-wood hubs and sawn felloes (rim pieces). In addition, as far as I can tell, iron tires were not prevalent in the MIddle Ages, though the Romans had them and of course they were around later. So I pieced together various sections of the book to find out what I needed. On to the pictures:
Traditional hubs were made of elm because the interlocked grain was resistant to splitting. I don't have any elm but have lots of sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) which is weaker but also interlocked. I glued up blanks to make elongated cubes about 5" across, and turned them to hubs about 4-1/2" long and 3-1/2" across. After marking the radial lines to locate the spokes, I mortised the holes with a 1/2" chisel set.
Mortised hub. I later turned the ends down to give a more traditional look.
Spokes set into the hub. They don't fit flush since the ends were cut on the tenoner. I eased the ends a little with a big gouge to let them fit closer.
A woodworking friend was in town for a few days helping me. To mortise the felloes, he suggested using a cutoff exterior piece from the felloes as a jig. This let me slide the felloe side to side and still get it lined up at the right spot under the chisel. The hold-downs wouldn't work though, so we cut up some aluminum plates and bolted them to the fence. A tapered stick jammed under on held all secure when mortising.
A different angle, with a better look a the limit lines.
An hour and a half of fitting and only one pic. The felloes were set on the spokes, the edges of the tenons marked, then the rim mortise cut and the fellow put in place. A ratcheting strap helped is pull the rim tight and let us see where the rim needed to be cut between two felloes to make it fit better. This job calls for experience or two people. Each spoke goes through its felloe, and I flare out the mortises on the outside edge. We then put a slit in the inside of tenon, and after the felloe was driven home and adjusted, we wedged each tenon to keep them on.
After everything was in place and temporarily clamped, I drilled diagonally through the joint of each felloe and drove in a glue covered dowel to bridge the joint. I went with two 3/8" oak dowels in each joint, put in at opposite angles. This is the one area where I really deviated from the book, and I hope it holds up.
Drilling out the hub. This was the size limiter--how big a wheel could I get under the drill press. Final diameter was about 19". The rim is also sycamore (again, I have lots of big pieces), and the spokes are red oak. The rim is sitting on a couple of pieces of 2x4 scrap so that the drill will be perpendicular to the rim, not to the hub. This will keep the wheels from looking like they're wobbling. The hub is lightly supported, but if it's cut cock-eyed it won't cause the axle hole to go in crooked.
In this picture you can see some of the wedged tenons and the dowels fastening the wheel.
And from the side. It came out pretty well--probably beginners luck. The second wheel is assembled too, and seems to be almost as good when you check the spoke shoulders against hub or rim.
Next up will be to turn an axle and then build the actual cart.
Kirk
Anyway, I started with a book. "Wheelwrighting, A Modern Introduction", by Bruce & Joyce Morrison, written about 2004. It is very much focused on making "modern" wooden wheels, modern being late 19th century and onward with cast hubs, bent wood rims, and steel or rubber tires. I was going for turned all-wood hubs and sawn felloes (rim pieces). In addition, as far as I can tell, iron tires were not prevalent in the MIddle Ages, though the Romans had them and of course they were around later. So I pieced together various sections of the book to find out what I needed. On to the pictures:
Traditional hubs were made of elm because the interlocked grain was resistant to splitting. I don't have any elm but have lots of sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) which is weaker but also interlocked. I glued up blanks to make elongated cubes about 5" across, and turned them to hubs about 4-1/2" long and 3-1/2" across. After marking the radial lines to locate the spokes, I mortised the holes with a 1/2" chisel set.
Mortised hub. I later turned the ends down to give a more traditional look.
Spokes set into the hub. They don't fit flush since the ends were cut on the tenoner. I eased the ends a little with a big gouge to let them fit closer.
A woodworking friend was in town for a few days helping me. To mortise the felloes, he suggested using a cutoff exterior piece from the felloes as a jig. This let me slide the felloe side to side and still get it lined up at the right spot under the chisel. The hold-downs wouldn't work though, so we cut up some aluminum plates and bolted them to the fence. A tapered stick jammed under on held all secure when mortising.
A different angle, with a better look a the limit lines.
An hour and a half of fitting and only one pic. The felloes were set on the spokes, the edges of the tenons marked, then the rim mortise cut and the fellow put in place. A ratcheting strap helped is pull the rim tight and let us see where the rim needed to be cut between two felloes to make it fit better. This job calls for experience or two people. Each spoke goes through its felloe, and I flare out the mortises on the outside edge. We then put a slit in the inside of tenon, and after the felloe was driven home and adjusted, we wedged each tenon to keep them on.
After everything was in place and temporarily clamped, I drilled diagonally through the joint of each felloe and drove in a glue covered dowel to bridge the joint. I went with two 3/8" oak dowels in each joint, put in at opposite angles. This is the one area where I really deviated from the book, and I hope it holds up.
Drilling out the hub. This was the size limiter--how big a wheel could I get under the drill press. Final diameter was about 19". The rim is also sycamore (again, I have lots of big pieces), and the spokes are red oak. The rim is sitting on a couple of pieces of 2x4 scrap so that the drill will be perpendicular to the rim, not to the hub. This will keep the wheels from looking like they're wobbling. The hub is lightly supported, but if it's cut cock-eyed it won't cause the axle hole to go in crooked.
In this picture you can see some of the wedged tenons and the dowels fastening the wheel.
And from the side. It came out pretty well--probably beginners luck. The second wheel is assembled too, and seems to be almost as good when you check the spoke shoulders against hub or rim.
Next up will be to turn an axle and then build the actual cart.
Kirk
