Wheel Final Glue Up

I should have taken more pictures while I was working but I got caught up in it and forgot all about it. Here are a few pictures of the wheel after the final Glue up.

Here is how I got to this point since the last post. I glued every other wheel section to it's mate using the wooden splines, leaving me with four sections. When dry I used a 3/16 drill to bore through where the sections were connected and through the splines and then glued dowels into each hole.

 If you look closely at the above pictures you will see the dowels are obvious at every other section, two on each side of the connection. I then used the band saw to cut the roundness into each section and sanded the inside rim. Then I turned the spokes - four of one shape and four of another. When all was ready I glued the spokes into the hub and, one by one, glued each wheel section to the corresponding spokes, and secured all of the wheel sections to each other by gluing them together with the remaining wooden splines. I then "clamped" it all together using the ratchet strap as you can see in the pictures. When this is dry I'll add dowels to newly glued sections as I did for the others.

Next I will need to build some sort of special lathe to turn the wheel on so I can clean up the sides and rim to make sure that it runs true.

Spinning Wheel Progress

I'm progressing on the spinning wheel project, slow but sure. I decided to put the wheel sections together using splines. Next time I think I'll go with dowels. Here is a crude jig that I put together to make the spline groove in the sections. I'm using a stacked dado blade set to cut the slots 3/8 wide and 3/4 deep. They must be straight up and down or they will not line up properly.

It may not look pretty but it worked well. After I had all the slots cut I made the splines. I ripped a 3 inch wide plank of oak to 3/8 inch thick (the width of the groove) and cut pieces from that 1 1/2 inches long (the length of two of the slots side by side). That way the grain of the spline is running in the same direction as the rest of the planks. It would have been easier to make the splines with the grain running perpendicular to the grain of the sections but when the wood swelled (all wood swells and shrinks with the humidity in the air) they would have pushed the sections apart.

I then dry fit the pieces together and marked out the wheel so I could figure out how deep to drill the hole for the spokes. It's easier to find the centers and drill them now then to wait until they're cut.

I also drilled out the hub and began preparations for making the spokes.

Getting the Wheel Pieces Cut

I've started cutting the pieces that will eventually make up wheel. I'm making my wheel from eight pieces of oak cut at 22 1/2 degrees. The plan calls for a wheel made of six sections, or planks as they are called in the plans, but I don't have a wide enough piece of wood for the hexagon size pieces.

I need to decide how I want to join the sections together - either splines or dowels. My plan is to drill the holes for the spokes in each section before I join them, then join the pieces into two halves. I can then mark out the inside circle on them and temporarily join the halves around the band saw blade and cut the inside circle. Since I've never done this before and can find very little information on the subject I'm playing this by ear - so to speak. I'll let you know how this all works out.