Wagon Wheel

[Leo Voisine]

My neighbor asked me a question the other day.

Can I build a wagon wheel?

Not one like the Amish do, but like an original Portuguese wheel from a wagon they had on the farm where he grew up. They had the local wagon builder make the wagon for then whan he was a kid in the Azores in the 60's The wagon even has some hand hammered blacksmithing work on it. A big difference is the way the wooden spoke are aligned between the hub and the rim. At the rim the spokes are in line with the sides of the spokes and rim. Spokes and rim are 1.25 wide, At the hub the spokes are still 1.25 but the hub is 2 inches. The side of the spoke will align with the side of the 2" hub. There are 8 spokes. The spokes will be divided with 4 spokes aligned with one side of the hub and 4 spokes aligned with the opposite side alternately.

I plan to make a video series out of this build.

I am in process of designing the wheel in solid works,

Some of the work will be CNC and some work will be with hand tools and some with modern hand power tools.

This will be a challange for me but I am excited to do it.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

I’m sure you’ve found Engels Coach shop in YouTube. If not he shows making a variety of different wheels in there and could be a good source of some inspiration for some of the construction details (yes different wheels but some parts are going up be the same or similar)

 

[Darren Wright]

I second Engels Coach Shop, he has a variety of ways he does things, I get a lot of "ah ha" moments watching him work.

 

[Mike Stafford]

It must be ordained as I was watching the Engels Coach Shop wagon wheel video this morning before breakfast. One of the guys in my woodworking lunch bunch asked me about something he thought he saw in the video so I looked at it this morning.

I do so admire craftsmanship and the men in the Engels video are definitely craftsmen.

What is it that granddad used to say, "Anything worth doing is worth doing right!"

Can't wait to enjoy your process photos. Have fun!

 

[Leo Voisine]

YES YES I have watched Engles bunches of times. Love that stuff.

Difference is that I am not going to do a "reproduction" per se, but some of the work will be similar.

Not gonna do process photos -- well maybe a little - but I will do process videos. It's gonna be VERY Portuguese. All in english, but I want to emphasis the Portuguese culture. In my area there is a very large Portuguese population. Of the 5 homes in my "village" there are 3 Portuguese. It used to be 4 but one neighbor moved out and another moved in. I am Canadian French. There is also a buisiness next door to me. One of my Portuguese neighbors is the business owner. He basically hires mostly Portuguese workers.

I am blessed to live in such a beautiful and friendly "villiage".

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Difference is that I am not going to do a "reproduction" per se, but some of the work will be similar.

Certainly interested in what you come up with!

I've been wanting to build a wooden wheel garden cart for a while and am not very wedded to any specific historical accuracy as such so would be interested to see the ideas you come up with along the way.

 

[Dave Hawksford]

I'd love to spend a minute in his shop.

 

[Leo Voisine]

While I am doing a complete design in solidworks and I have done engineering design all my life, I do have the ability to create prints from my wagon wheel design. I could create a full set of somewhat professional design prints (plans) of the wagon wheel. I do plan to make at least some for my personal use in my shop.

Currently I have the "tuff stuff" done on the design. The mortise and tenon on the offsets on the hub rim and spokes is done.

There is a bunch of fine tuning to do on the spoke to wheel alignment.

So the design is not yet complete but the rest is pretty easy. I only work on this in between other stuff so it will be another week or so to complete the design, depending on life events.