Making Wooden Spoked Wheels for models

[radish1us 390]

Here's a bit about making wooden spoked wheels for Scale Model Horse Drawn Vehicles.
 
There are 3 ways that I can make a wooden spoked wheel for a model, 1st method - using wooden fellies,  2nd method - using acrylic fellies,  3rd method - using laminated strips to make the fellies.
The  1st method wastes a lot of expensive timber and I got sick and tired of chucking all this money away, so I needed another method that did not cost as much.
I started making wooden spoked wheels using the method that is printed in any of the 3 books by John Thompson, on making Model Horse Drawn Vehicles.
Each booklet has a section on how he makes his wheels. This involves making up 'cake slices' out of timber, gluing all these slices together to form a rough circle. Then once the glue is dry, cut the fellies out using a lathe. OK, it does work, it wastes a lot of timber and the glued fellies sections,  have a terrible habit of breaking apart at the worst possible moment, very frustrating when you are trying to fit the spider into the fellies. Most times I just had to start again.
I have made a lot of wheels for my models using this 1st method, but after many frustrating hours re-making bits, I decided I needed another safer and easier way of making the fellies.
The 2nd method was born out of desperation to save bucks and time, it worked far in excess of any expectations that I had first envisaged, a real B-O-N-U-S. 
Instead of making the cake slices from timber, I now use a bit of acrylic that cost me 'sweet eff aye’,.
Ever heard of dumpster diving, that's going around to a sign making joint after hours and diving into the rubbish bin and ratting the said bin for usable bits of acrylic. Works like a charm and it only costs me the petrol to get where I want to be.
Got adventurous one day and decided to ask for these golden scraps, the fellas at the bin were actually very glad to offload any and ALL bits of their rubbish that I required, bigger B-O-N-U-S, eh. I  now just grab whatever thickness acrylic sheet I require from the scrap bits I have, cut them real rough on the band saw then shove them into a jig I made for the lathe and hey presto, real easily made fellies and lots stronger then the wooden cake slices. Now the obvious question arises about now, " it aint as what the original wheels would have been made from ? ", ---  BIG DEAL, --- once painted,  who knows what's under that coating of jam, eh. 

The 3rd method was sort of "well, ---- I'll suck it and see what happens",  ----- it worked —- eventually, once I had ironed out a few bugs and I’ll use it any time I need too.

Start with strips of timber that a kitchen cabinet maker uses to cover the edge of the bench top he is making, you can buy this stripped timber in big 50mtr rolls, looks like the first roll is going to last me at least a couple of decades, there's that much of it. I just use PVA wood glue wiped onto one surface with a finger and slap the next strip on top of the first strip, keep adding as many strips as I need and whilst the glue is still wet, take these strips and place them onto a jig. The jig has been made to whatever shape I require, wrap these glued strips around the jig and then get a ratchet strap, you know the ones that are used for holding down a load on a car trailer. Tighten down the ratchet strap until it's about to be shredded, well not quite, but you can play a “G” chord on it, as it’s got to be that tight. Leave it overnight and allow the glue to set, take it out the next day and lay the strips out on the lawn so the sun can bake the PVA glue hard.
When hard dry, cut to whatever width you require, with whatever saw you need to use on this lot and it works a treat.
 
I have tried to upload a lot of photo's showing just how the ACRYLIC fellie is made and the wheel assembled, the photo hosting site had a fit when I went to upload them, so I'll just leave them all in my FaceBook page, bugger the photo hosting sites, eh.

For those that want to have a sticky-beak at this lot, will have to part with their first born and hand them over to  Mark Zuckerberg. Every photo has an explanation to it, so it's easy to follow, any question please ask.

Those that don't have, or, do not want to join Facebook, will just have to ---------------------------
 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/227136924687447

 

 

Photo 1 shows the Wooden fellie method ----- aka John Thompson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 2 shows the Acrylic Fellie method.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 3 shows the Laminated method of making Fellies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANY QUESTION ABOUT ANY OF THESE WHEEL MAKING METHODS, then please ask.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2020 by radish1us

[Bandsaw Steve 6,169]

Very good information there - thanks very much. I can see the ‘acrylic’ method get  some use in my future.

[Jonners 3,156]

Nice one, Radish! Thanks.

Jon

[Noel Smith 132]

Looking at the wooden wheels on a number of vintage cars would lend itself well to the acrylic method of wheel making described by radis1s.