Goodfelloes, part 1.

Okay, so, I don't look like Ray Liotta...

The parts of the wheel that make it round are the felloes (sometimes fellies). In this picture you can see the hubs with spokes in the background and the board with felloe patterns in the foreground.

To make the felloe patterns a beam compass was used to layout two concentric circles. The inner has a radius equal to the distance from the center of the hub to the shoulder of the spoke's felloe tenon, and the outer has a radius about 3" wider.

The pattern was then laid over the spokes to double check fit, and was cut into four pieces with the ends about half way between spokes. Don't forget that this removes 1/2" inch total from the pattern (1/8" kerf x 4 cuts) the loss must be restored when marking the felloes for cut out or the pieces will not be a perfect circle.

To make the felloes I had hoped to be able to use some rough cut oak from a friend with a sawmill, but scheduling just didn't work out, so pine 2x12 that I had on hand was substituted.

When working with wheel a fixture to support them is handy. I made this one by screwing a '4" toilet flange' with a '2" into 4" union' to the work table. This view shows the felloes mounted.

Once the pieces were cut out I clamped them together with spring clamps and laid them over the spokes. Then I marked the felloes for the spoke mortises. Using a straight edge I 'shot' a line on the felloe side, then with the combination square transferred the line across the inner surface of the felloe, then crossed this at the dead center.

The next step was to build a jig for drilling the felloe spoke mortises precisely on the radius. This one is a tad complicated so I'll put it in a later post.

McK