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Gentle Galoots, Has anyone else seen that program, How It's Made? I love it, but the edition where they were building a carriage blew me a way! The carriage body was welded from square pipe which was no particular surprise, but the construction of the wheels was unbelievable. The felloes were laid out upon a flat steel table in their correct position, then a steel hub was bolted on top and through them. Then the ends were cut to length, chamfered and tenon cut by a powered version of the appropriate handtools. They used two rim sections which were pneumatically pressed in place, a rim was welded and I missed a part about something being soldered. The the tire was dropped up and down until the rubber tire seated itself. Somewhere along the line it got a coat of white paint. What astounded me was the pneumatic table with pre-spaced bolts and the ease with which they just slapped together a wooden wheel. There was no dishing, no wooden hub, but the process was sort of a bastardized version of a carriage wheel. The process was meant for mass production, but I wonder how these wheels hold up? They use Ash for the spokes was the only wood identified. I wonder if these town-used carriage wheels aren't meant for a short lifetime? I cannot see how the hub bolts in wood would not eventually elongate or break out. Of course, it wouldn't take much to de-construct and repair the wheel or just toss it and save the hub plate, if even that! I
had no idea that a carriage wheel could be built that fast with
so little labor and even less wood! They have found a way to
automate a centuries old process that just sort of shocked me,
but maybe I'm the only person who wasn't in on this
technological joke!
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