Well this week I began building the wheels for this chuck wagon we're restoring,
And when I'm building wagon hubs, break it down into 7 basic steps.
And that's what we're going to work through this week.
Well I have a set of ash blocks here that I cured probably twelve to fifteen years ago,
so they're a good choice that I'm going to use for the hubs for these wheels.
Now when I examined the original old hub bands
I found that these hubs varied, even from the beginning.
They range from eight and one eighth, to eight and three eighths.
So the first step is, I''m going to take all of these blocks
and take them down to a uniform diameter for a uniform set of wheels.
I'm going to use the smallest diameter, eight and one eighth,
and I'll adjust all the hubs bands so that they are the same.
The first step was to bring everything down to a uniform diameter.
The second step is to take these down to a uniform length.
We need eleven inches to match the old hub lengths.
So the third step is now to fit these bands that fit the outer ends of the hubs.
These are also a variety of sizes,
but to keep their originality, I'm going to leave these sizes as they were
and I will fit the hubs to match the bands.
So now with the hub bands fitted,
the fourth step is to cut the mortises to accommodate the spokes.
This are going to be a two inch spoke, with a three quarter inch tenon.
So after the mortises for the spokes are cut,
the fifth step is to go back to the metal lathe
and put the tapered hole in the center of this hub
that accommodates the boxing, which actually makes these wheels run on the axles.
So before I can press these boxings in to the hubs, because they are tapered,
I need to set the hub bands to prevent these hub blocks from cracking
when I press the boxings in.
So the sixth step is to set the hub bands.
These are hot shrunk, just like wagon tires are.
So now that we have the hub bands set,
we can go ahead and do the seventh, and final step,
and press the boxings in to the hub.
Well I had hopes that I was gong to get all four hubs built this week for these wheels,
but I ran out of week before I ran out of work.
So I'll finish up these other three, probably while you're watching this video.
Once again. Thanks for following along.
Thanks for watching!