Thanks for the comments guys. I've taken the engine apart and the paint is drying.
A cart for the engine to sit on is going to need wheels and I have become strangely fascinated by this type of wheel which I have seen occasionally at steam fairs. They seem to be peculiar to manufacturers in the East of England (I stand to be corrected).
The felloe and spoke are bent up from strip, presumably cast into the hub and the tyre is riveted to the felloe. I decided to have a go at making 4 and 5 spoke versions, 50 and 65mm diameter respectively.
For the larger wheel I rolled up a length of 1/16" steel strip in my GHT bending rolls
and silver soldered a butt joint
for the smaller wheel I cut the tyre from 2" bar
I printed assembly jigs with holes to give the rivet spacing for both wheel types
Another jig was printed to form the felloe/spoke around
The spokes are nominally 1mm thick soft steel and were tapped around the former with a drift
The hubs were made form brass, turned and slots for the spokes were milled with a 2mm slot drill
The bits were assembled in the jig and 1.7mm holes were drilled for 1/16" soft iron dome head rivets
The holes in the rim were countersunk and then riveted to the felloe using this dolly which was just a lump of steel with a seat for the round head cut with a 3mm ball ended endmill
The rivets were filed flush with rim and then the whole thing assembled with JB Weld holding the spokes and hub caps in place
Having sketched out a few designs I have come round to just using the small wheels to make a hand cart something like this, courtesy of JasonB
I hope you have found this digression interesting, thanks for looking in,
Rod
