When we built these wheels for the borax wagons in back in 2016
we were getting ready for the Rose Parade of January 2nd 2017. So we had this deadline in mind.
Well the hubs on these wheels had a higher moisture content than it was ideal
for the two to three percent humidity level in Death Valley.
So we knew that we had about a five
year window that we would be readjusting these wheels
and that's what we're headed in today,
in to a unique situation of a wheel that is called felloe bound and this is how we deal with it.
Well if you remember last week's video, when I was cutting the tires off of these wheels, when I got
that final cut you notice that the iron kind of snapped apart. That is because there was still some
tension on the rims or the felloes of these wheels. Well in the process of being in Death Valley,
these hubs have continued to shrink, which has pulled the spokes away from the felloes.
So this has created a wheel that is called rim bound, or felloe bound, where there's still tension
on the felloes, but yet the hub has shrunk away. And so now there are gaps and spaces between the ends
of the spokes into the felloes and into the hub.
So what occurs when this hub shrinks away from
the rim and there's still tension of the tire on the felloes
what happens when this wagon is being driven is
that the hub and the spokes tend to free float inside the circumference of this wheel.
So there's a lot of movement of the tenons as they go into the hub
and there's a lot of slippage in the spoke tenons, in to the felloes.
And this creates damage both into the hub and into the felloe joint.
Well on a felloe bound wheel, there is still contact between the joints on the rim, or the felloe,
but the contact has been disrupted between the spokes into the hub,
in this case, because of the shrinkage of the hub.
So what we need to do is decrease the diameter, and
in order to do that we need to decrease the circumference of the rim or the felloes.
So I'm going to take these wheels and adjust all these felloe joints and decrease the circumference
of the rim, or the felloes, on these wheels so they come down and make contact, so when we reset these
tires, that pressure will be transferred through the spokes, down into the hub, as they should be.
Well as loose as these spokes were into the hub, and how easily they came out, I did remove
one felloe section so that I could see the condition of these tenons as they go into the hub.
But because they are a double tapered tenon into the hub, they are easily snugged back up again.
So I'm going to tap each of these spokes in, to make them secure into the hub,
and from there we can adjust the felloe sections down to the correct circumference.
Well over the years, a number of you have asked why I don't glue my joints.
This exercise in resizing these felloes is exactly why I don't glue joints.
If these were all glued, this repair would be next to impossible.
Now every saw cut that I take with this Sawzall, using this carbide blade,
I'm taking out 70 thousandths of the circumference.
So you start adding up the number of cuts, times 70 thousandths,
and you'll realize just how much I'm taking out in circumference on these felloes.
So this process of decreasing their circumference, so we have contact with the spokes, is exactly the
same process that you use when you're putting new felloes on any buggy wheel or wagon wheel.
It's bringing the felloes down to make contact onto the spokes, so when that tire is set,
that tension is transferred down into the hub, and that's what really gives strength to the wheel.
Now we took out about 13/16 of an inch in circumference. And you're going
to automatically think, well doesn't that affect the diameter? Well of course it does.
So I did a quick calculation that 245 inches for an 80 inch wheel is about where we started.
So if we calculate it's 244 and a quarter, to allow for that three quarters of an inch,
we have lost a quarter of an inch in diameter. So these wheels are still really close to the
original 80 inch diameter of the original wagons.
And those original wagons were reset a number of times also,
so the same factor has been factored into those.
It's just part of the life and history of these borax wagons.
Anyway, once again, thanks for watching!