Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 16:36:00 -0500 (EST) Reply-To: kinsey@uno.cc.geneseo.edu Sender: owner-oldtools@listserv.law.cornell.edu Precedence: bulk From: kinsey@uno.cc.geneseo.edu (Kinsey) To: oldtools@LISTSERV.LAW.CORNELL.EDU Subject: Re:Steam bending felloes Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Had a couple of responses to my comment about bending felloes, so here tis! < ted>>(who has bent a bunch of 1 1/2" wheel felloes) > >Yikes! 1 1/2" -- _bent_? I'm impressed, but I also thought that felloes >were normally sawn. Is steambending them also another oldtime method or is >this your innovation? > >Bob Brode >Now, Ted, you bring up something else which is a new idea for me: >BENDING WHEEL FELLOES: I've seen Roy, who never mentions steaming, >>cuttingthem out with a frame (wheelwright's saw?) saw, but your idea of >steaming >and bending them sounds as though it could be easier AND more accurate, so, >Ted, could you give us some more particulars on how it's done, i.e., >optimum radius? how to make bending jig? number of felloes per wheel? Are >the felloes made 1 1/2" square? Can a galoot make round ones? etc.? >Ed Brinson The early wheels were sawn, 6 or 7 segments to the wheel. I can't give you a date, but sometime after the civil war, they started steam bending felloes (half circles). I suspect it was during the war, because of the number of wheels they needed. They are also stronger, especially for light wheels, since there is no cross grain. Most of the wagon wheels you see are the later ones, and they almost all have bent felloes, including stuff up to 2x4"!! We have in the museum a set of light felloes, still nailed to the board that kept them from straightening with the address of the hardware dealer they were bought from. I strongly suspect that the great majority of the steam bent felloes were factory bent and NOT done in the shop. We needed a bunch for some wheel repairs, so made our own jigs etc and went at it. The 1 1/2 inch square is about the limit as to size, without some power assist. It was fun and a good show when we did it. The visitors couldn't quite believe that it was working. So how did we do it? First you need the stock. My partner in the shop happened upon a nice straight grained wide hickory plank at the local mill, which we sawed out the blanks from. We have also used green split out blanks.They have to be a couple of feet longer than the felloe, since the ends don't bend well. He made a heavy "table", and also some semicircular forms to bend around. The form bolts to the table, and around the edges of the form, and about 2-3 inches outside of it, you drill a row of 5/8" holes, spaced maybe 6" apart. At the center of the circle there is a bracket for a bolt on which pivots a long handle that rides above the form. On the handle is mounted a roller at the appropriate distance to ride on the felloe as you are bending it to help pull it around the form. All of this is pretty massive stuff, to take some considerable strain. There is also a second handle, with a couple of iron brackets that will slide on the end of the felloe to give extra leverage near the end of the bend. The table is set up outside the shop near the steam box and anchored to pegs in the ground so it will not tip. You also need a bunch of pegs to fit in the holes around the form and wedges to drive in between the pegs and the felloe, to make it conform to the circle. The last thing you need is a piece of 2" x 1/16" strap iron that goes on the outside of the felloe, to protect it from bruising of the pegs and wedges. The wheel also rides more smoothly on the iron than on the wet wood. Steam your blank for a couple of hours. (avoid the junction between sapwood and heartwood; we have had failures at this point). The grain should be oriented square to the billet. Have an old burlap bag in hot water, to cover the felloe as you bend it and hold the heat. Get a couple of helpers and you're ready to go. The blank comes out of the box, gets the iron strap slapped on and is stuffed behind the first peg and the roller, and gets the burlap on top of it. One guy pulls on the end of the felloe, another heaves on the handle with the roller and the third uses his mallet to put in pegs and wedges and keep things from riding up as the bend proceeds. You can feel the wood give as you pull, and you keep just ahead of the wedges to avoid kinking. Basically you are both pulling about as hard as you can and hoping the whole thing doesn't upset. The whole bend takes about a minute. After an hour to cool, you can saw the unbent ends off and tack on a strip to hold the bend. Knock out the wedges, lift it off the form and put it to dry for a couple of weeks. The finished felloe will be a little finer than the 1 1/2" rough dimensions, but not much. We did 4 felloes one afternoon, lost one to a bad crack. I don't recall the diameters; we did two sizes for the wheels we were repairing: 40 something inches. I don't know how authentic it all was. Partly it was based on a mast-hoop bending rig at Mystic Marine museum, partly on the design of metal bending jigs. But it looked great--no cadmium plated bolts or 20th century anything. ted ---------------------------------------------------------------- Private replies: kinsey@uno.cc.geneseo.edu Public replies: oldtools@listserv.law.cornell.edu To subscribe, signoff, to digest: listserv@listserv.law.cornell.edu Other housekeeping: oldtools-owner@listserv.law.cornell.edu Hypermail archive: http://mailmunch.law.cornell.edu/mhonarc/OLDTOOLS When quoting, edit severely.