Steps for Building Wooden Spoked Wheels

These drawings and instructions were graciously sent in by Mr. Trauttmansdorff to give Delivery Wagon builders an idea of how he went about making an alternate set of wheels for his pedal car. His drawings and text should help the able builder a long way toward a great looking set of wheels. The drawings on this page are links to larger versions of the same picture. Click on a drawing to view it in more detail.

This picture shows, from left to right, how to shape the
wooden spokes. The exact dimensions and cross-sections can be modified
to suit your own tastes. I found it easier to make the spokes in pairs
like this because the flat pads at either end helped to keep the piece
steady for machining.

Pine wood worked fine for me, but I would recommend something harder.
Starting with a flat rectangular piece of wood, cut the initial spoke
contour. Be sure to leave the flat ends large enough to provide a good
surface for mounting the hub flange. The spokes can then be shaped by
hand, but it goes much quicker if you use a router with a curved bit.
For eight spokes per wheel, the arrowhead angle at the ends is cut at
22-1/2 degrees. The final product will look better if the angle is cut
accurately. But, it's not the end of the world if you're off by a bit
because the joint will eventually be covered by the hub flange. To
provide clearance for the axle, cut the pointed tips off the
arrowheads. Finally, cut the piece in half and you have two spokes. If
you are supremely confident you can immediately cut the spokes to the
correct length. But if you're like me, you should leave lots of extra
length in each spoke until you are ready to commit yourself later. I
would also strongly recommend that you take the time to cut several
spare spokes as insurance against future accidents.

This picture shows how to assemble the spokes to the
hub. There are several potential problem areas here. The metal hub
flanges only come with 4 predrilled holes set at 90-degrees to each
other (at least mine did). Unless you have a well equipped machine
shop, you're probably going to drill the extra 4 holes at the 45-degree
positions using a hand-held drill (like I did). It is fairly critical
that all the holes line up with each other. So before you start
drilling holes which you will later regret (like I did), it is a really
good idea to mark each spoke and hub flange with a unique number so you
will always be able to fit everything back together in the same
configuration.

Before drilling any holes, fit the spokes together and temporarily clamp
the hub flanges in place. When you've got everything lined up to your
satisfaction, drill through the four wooden spokes at the positions for
which there are already holes in the metal hub flanges. Then you can
securely bolt at least those four spokes through the metal flanges.

Now you can decide whether you really want to drill the other four
holes. In theory, the spokes at the 45-degree position shouldn't need
to be bolted into place. They will be held clamped between the two hub
flanges. And once the whole assembly is mounted inside the wheel rim,
the loose spokes shouldn't be able to fall out. But for added strength
and appearance, you will want to drill and bolt these spokes too. With
the spokes all assembled into place, it should be relatively easy to
drill straight through the one metal flange, through the wood spoke, and
out through the opposite flange all in one straight line.

This picture shows how the wheel rim is attached to the
spoke assembly. Hopefully, as recommended, you will have cut the spokes
slightly longer than required to fit snugly within the rim. You can
temporarily mount the hub on the axle shaft and spin the hub assembly.
Holding a pencil at the required radius from the hub, mark each spoke at
the correct length. If done properly, this will ensure that, not only
will each spoke be the right length, but the hub will actually end up
near the centre of the wheel rim. After marking the spokes, checking,
checking again, and re-checking, cut the spokes to the correct lengths.
You will discover (like I did) that regardless of how often you checked
before cutting, at least one spoke will end up too short. Of course
that will not be quite as big a disaster as it could have been because
you (unlike me) will have made several spare spokes in anticipation of
just such an eventuality. Drill pilot holes through the rim into the
end of each spoke and fasten with screws. If you don't drill pilot
holes first, you risk splitting the spokes when you drive in the screws!

This picture shows how the hub of one wheel is fastened to
the drive axle. Once the hub is finished (with brass insert, etc.) as
per the plans, position the finished wheel on the drive axle. Mark its
location on the shaft. For the next step, it's much easier to keep
everything straight if you have a drill press. You may, or may not,
want to disassemble the hub again. It's up to you. Of course you must
have the hub positioned on the shaft as you drill through the hub and
axle shaft simultaneously to ensure that the holes lines up properly.
Try to get as tight a fit as you can between the small bolt and the hole
through the axle shaft to limit any play between the two.

Happy Motoring!