Miniature Wagon Wheels

bobsmodels

Bob
Senior User
I have not made any, but I have on my list to make a Gatling gun some day. I have looked at the carriage and wheels made by folks who have done this. A Cannon type wheel needs to be dished in order to look authentic. The entire carriage and attachments is a great woodworking project. In the pictures you can see the sections of the wheels and how the effect is real, a solid round outside with dowel type spokes just would not make a model look great. Look these over ( none are mine), they are just woodworking projects. The actual cannon is just a small part of the model. I included an example of a spoke, no dimensions because it is from a proprietary drawing for the Gatlin Gun, but it will give you the idea of how the wheel is dished.

Bob

Cannon-1.jpg
Cannon-2.jpg
Cannon-3.jpg
Cannon-4.jpg

--------------------------------------------------------------Dished Out Wheel---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Wheel Segments, Spokes not round

Cannon-5.jpg
Cannon-6.jpg
Cannon-7.jpg
Gatlin-1.jpg


----- Here is real dished view------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The wheel on this is about 15"

Spoke 2.jpg
 

bobsmodels

Bob
Senior User
Jeff

There are two different cannons and one Gatlin gun. The full view wheel first row far right has 7 fellows, 14 spokes. The Gatlin wheel has 8 fellows , 16 spokes. It looks like if my counting is correct the smaller cannon's all have 7 fellows.

Bob
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
Thanks Bob. I was making my SketchUp model after the pictures that the OP posted. I counted 6 fellows and 12 spokes so that's what I used.
 

Roy G

Roy
Senior User
Robert, your brother has the classic idea that anything in a store can be made more cheaply by a woodworker. Makes me shake my head.

Roy G
 

Robert166

robert166
Corporate Member
He has a metal lathe and is making the cannon, not to hard for him, I do the woodworking and have never made any wagon wheels. He thinks, it easy, no problem for me, I got all the tools he says. But he does do alot for me so I hate to tell him no.
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
He has a metal lathe and is making the cannon, not to hard for him, I do the woodworking and have never made any wagon wheels. He thinks, it easy, no problem for me, I got all the tools he says. But he does do alot for me so I hate to tell him no.

Don't tell him no just have a go at making the wheels. It may take a few tries to get the hang of it.
 

bobsmodels

Bob
Senior User
90% of my projects are with a metal lathe, mill etc. I get the same thing - oh you have all that equipment it is easy to make this for me! Well one part was plastic with all kinds of angles and holes, I went on line and found it for .75. It would have taken me a week with all those angles. I handed it to him and he was pissed that I did not make it.

So everyone thinks the other persons skills are free and easy to apply. I have solved most of my requests by offering the use of the shop. Person just needs to come by, purchase the materials and I will help. They run the machines, they spend the time. In the last ten years I have only had one taker. After two days, he said - this is really hard to do, I had no idea. It was a part for a model hit and miss engine. He had purchased it. He had the prints. What he did not realize that the likelihood someone actually made it to the print was remote. Like someone asking you to make a replacement drawer from the original drawings not having a clue that the drawer was going to need to be fit to the units actual opening. Spent the first half day figuring out how to dimension it so it would actually work, prints no help other than basic design. He stuck it out, took him four days. Told me he would not ask someone to do something like that again.

I agree with Jeff, if you have the time, ie no other projects ahead of it, think it would be a useful skill to learn (in the case of the wheel, lots of careful fitting up skills) then have it and have some fun.

Bob
 

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