Ken's Spokes

[Dave Richards]

Ken asked me to post some pictures of the turnings he made for me. So here they are in the steering wheel I've been working on. He did an excellent job on these and I'm very grateful to him for them.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/DSC03822.jpg

The hub ends of the spokes have spar varnish on them but the rest is unfinished.

[Andy Hoyt]

It's a segmented six bonkers-in-one multiple Whackmaster.

Way to go guys!

[Dennis Peacock]

It's a segmented six bonkers-in-one multiple Whackmaster.

Way to go guys!

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yea....since I've stopped laughing now.....Congrats to the both of you. Very nice indeed. :cool:

[Jonathon Spafford]

Great team work, both of you! It looks super!

[Neal Addy]

That's a beauty. Great job, guys!

[Jim O'Dell]

SUPERb! That turned out very nice! Jim.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Beautiful work guys! Please post a pic when you have it totally finished.

[Bernie Weishapl]

It is a beauty. The two of you did some nice work.

[Jim Underwood]

Wow...

I love seeing pictures of practical utilitarian projects made of multiple parts. (Like spinning wheels, clocks, tripods, and stuff like that.)

Good job on this thing. Crisp turnings, and great looking joints.

Now how about a picture of the boat Cap'n?:D

[Tom Sherman]

A very nice collaborative effort nice Wheel and nice turnings

[Bruce Page]

That is going to be a really cool wheel!

[Paul Engle]

Nice work, ah ... where does the clock go :confused: :eek: :D

[Curt Fuller]

Congratulations to the both of you. That's a great collaboration of talent!

[John Schreiber]

Ken and Dave,

That's a beauty collaborative project and it looks like it's strong enough to stand up to the abuse it will see in bad conditions. Can you let us know a bit about how it was built?

It looks like perhaps the outer ring was made as two segmented disks. The larger one must have been turned, trimmed along the inside, cut along the segments, and trimmed to fit. The smaller ring could have been tuned, trimmed and somehow cut down the middle with a carefully designed jig.

Did I guess right?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

John......To my knowledge only the spindles were turned. Dave made a very accurate jig and routed the rest of the parts.

[Dave Richards]

Thanks for all the compliments folks.

Ken's almost right about the construction. He should have left the word "accurate" out. :D

I made a trammel for my trim router to cut the curves on the felloes. (The felloes are the rim parts. Same as on a wagon wheel. The galoots will have at least heard of a felloes plane and that's what they're used for.)

The inner felloes fill the space between the spokes. They were cut first after laying out their locations. To locate the felloes I used blanks that were planed to the same size as the blanks I sent to Ken.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/DSC03737.jpg

The outer felloes pieces were assembled into hexagons, one for each side. I glued them up with supper glue which work pretty well. A little paraffin on the layout jig kept the felloes from getting glued down. I screwed down a blank, smeared some glue on the next blank and held it in place for 30 seconds or so. Then I stuck in a screw to hold it and worked my way around.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/DSC03739.jpg

I made a little custom layout trammel by cutting notches in the edge of a scrap. the notches located the pencil lead for drawing out the circles.

Then I ran the trammel around to cut the ring.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/DSC03740.jpg

After the spokes came back from Ken I set the trammel up to cut notches in the flats of the spokes to receive the outer felloes rings. I did the back of the wheel first and then screwed and epoxied the outer felloes to the spokes. I also epoxied the inner felloes into place and waited for the epoxy to cure. Finally the notches were cut on the opposite side and the other ring was screwed and epoxied.

The bungs over the screw holes are cut in a strip like this.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/DSC03817.jpg
The little bit of wood left makes it easy to handle the bungs. You can get the grain aligned properly and you can dip them into the varnish without getting it all over your fingers. the bung will break free of the strip when it is driven in with the mallet.

I don't glue bungs. Instead I use varnish to hold them in. There's no structural load on them so the varnish holds well enough. There's no glue line since there's no glue and the bungs can be removed if needed by driving a wood screw into them and jacking them out. Although there's no need to remove the screws on this wheel since it is epoxied together, I still used varnish to stick the bungs in place.

[Jim Becker]

Wow! Nice job Ken AND Dave!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Thanks for the compliments folks!

Jim.....I thought Dave and I did a good job considering we're both a couple of 'tron chasing nerds/wannabe woodworkers!

[Glenn Hodges]

Precision work by knowledgeable craftsmen produce beauty, and this is an example.

[Dave Richards]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/DSC03839.jpg
Varnish is still wet but here it is.

[Tom Sherman]

A feller needs lots of room to use that steering wheel in his car:D
Seriously very nice wheel great job to you and Ken.