Creating the Morgan #4: Spoked Wheels

I have reached the fabrication of the wheels. While I definitely considered doing the wheels shown in the plan, I finally decided that I would just make spoked wheels using the jig I copied from Bushmaster. The biggest question was how many spokes. I decided on a total of 16.

I turned the tire part and rim part to the appropriate diameter. I made each rim blank 1-5/8 long and using a 1-5/8” forester bit I bored out the interior of the rim to the depth of 1-inch, leaving the 5/8” added length solid. A 1/2” hole for the center peg was drilled while the rim was still on the lathe. After gluing the peg, the 1/4” center bore was made for the axle. I left the rim part about 5/8” longer so I could chuck it for final sanding after drilling.

The jig is made from scrap stock found in the shop, so disregard the celtic knot carving on the front face. :-) I chose my 8 spoke index wheel and mounted that to the rear of the chuck, attaching the rim blank to the front post.

The rim blank is positioned and you can see the scribe lines for the spoke position. The rear mark will be made with the jig level on the table, drilling 8 locations. The second (front) set of spokes will be drilled at an 8-degree tilt spaced in the double lined area and located between the first set of spoke holes.

After all the rims were drilled, it was time to add the spokes. I use round tooth picks. They measure out to be around 3/32” and perfect for this use.

Spokes are glued in using medium CA.

After giving the glue some cure time, the spokes are clipped to final length, chucked into the lathe and a file used to smooth the rim for fit into the tire.

Before final fitting of the rims to the tires, the tires are stained black using MinWax True Black penetrating stain. After it was dry, the rims and tires are glued together and the axle knobs and axle pegs were fabricated. The finished wheel assembly is chucked onto the lathe and the extra length of the rim stock is removed.

Two of the finished wheels.

The journey continues and is nearing completion. I have about 75 hours into this project at this point with a few left.

Keep making’ sawdust!
Dave

-- DaveS2, Canton GA aka pdwoodwerkz