An unusual application for Aspire

[ironsides]

A friend/neighbor asked me to make a wooden wagon wheel similar to those used on the Pioneer Wagons that came west in the mid 1800's.

He salvaged a mostly decayed wheel buried in concrete in order for me to get dimensions and an idea what it looked like.

We will improvise on certain features because it will be used for decorative purposes only.

The Wheel Hub will will be split into staked layers of wood and the middle halve of the Hub will be split to capture the spokes, then the upper halve will be placed over the split hub, doweled and glued.

The Felloes will also be split and segmented as shown on the attached image.

Using Aspire to model and generate the assembly concept was a great help. Of course I have separate Model files for each component generated by 2D cutting files, then I created Models from the toolpath image and pasted them into a separate Aspire assembly project file.

Hope this all makes sense and the image should be helpful.

The Wheel diameter is 43.50 inches. A steel band will be shrunk fit to the wooden segmented Felloes.

George D Kelly

[kartracer63]

That's pretty neat George.

[genek]

Are there more parts to the wheel that you are not showing.. would love to see Drawing... That design will hold more weight than what you would think... WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA FOR A CART FOR THE WIFE OR AS A BBG STAND ETC.

[ironsides]

Are there more parts to the wheel that you are not showing.. would love to see Drawing... That design will hold more weight than what you would think... WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA FOR A CART FOR THE WIFE OR AS A BBG STAND ETC.

Yes, there are more parts.
The image does not show the bulk pieces of the hub, which will be several layers of 3/4 disks.
They will all be pined/glued together to form a final height of 12 to 13 inches.

There will also be a upper half of the split felloes. The split felloes will have blind dowel pins that will not show when assembled.

Also, steel bands will be placed around both sides of the spokes on the laminated hub.

The final design is still in work, pending material selection.

George

[gene]

If you heat the steel ring it will expand and make it easier to install ( just a thought):cool:

[ironsides]

I am slowly making progress on the Wagon Wheel Project.

First image is the Split Hub details.

Second is the Split Hub Assembly

Third image is the partially assembled wheel. Two more layers will be bonded to the Rim (FYI: This image is incorrectly rotated 90 deg CCW).

There will be a total of 49 pieces in this wheel as it is laminated from 3/4 inch planks (not counting the numerous 1/2 dowel pins for final assembly.

20 Rim (felloes) segments
12 Spokes
17 Hub pieces

George D Kelly