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!