HARDWOOD RECORD 



FINE STOCK OF WHEELS HEADY FOR 

 STRIPING 



found to give complete satisfaction when 

 proper attention has been directed to the 

 overcoming of small difficulties. 



Sides of farm wagons consist, to outward 

 view, of two boards, one above the other; 

 but the lower board, which is often sixteen 

 inches high, may be of two planks securely 

 joined by dovetail or other fastening, and 

 in fact boards made of several such planks 

 are on the market and are said to be a suc- 

 cess. For a sixteen-inch board seventeen- 

 inch lumber is necessary, and this is hard 

 to get, therefore the production of the 

 joined-up boards by some makers. When 

 well done the joining is so perfect that the 

 outer surfaces appear as one board, and the 

 strength of this compounded board is very 

 great. 



The box-bed or bottom board of a wagon 

 is generally longleaf pine. This wood is 

 strong, and its strength is reinforced not 

 only by hardwood cleats but by tongue-and- 

 groove construction. The separate boards 

 are three to five inches wide. Longleaf pine 

 is not used for the sides because it is said 

 to be too heavy and does not hold paint 

 well. Poplar, on the other hand, would be 

 too light for the bottom. 



It will be noted th.it hcnw woods are not 



necessary for box cleats. In general hard- 

 wood is avoided in the making of wagon 

 boxes because lightness is a requisite, al- 

 though on account of the fact that a great 

 strain must be withstood by the bottom 

 board the cleats are generally of hardwood, 

 as already said, and sometimes the bcil it- 

 self is of birch or oak. 



The crux of wagon-making is the wheel. 

 It seems a simple enough contrivance: hub, 

 spokes, rim. But all the science of wagon- 

 making is centered there. Do all lumber- 

 men know that the spokes in a wagon wheel 

 are not set at exact right angles to the 

 rim and hub? Do they all know that the 

 wheel itself does not usually stand quite 

 erect — that is, a plumb dropped from the 

 highest point in the rim would not touch its 

 lowest point? The spokes are made to in- 

 cline inward from the rim, so that the plane 

 of the center of the rim does not coincide 

 with the plane of the center of the hub. 

 The result is what is called the "dishing" 

 of a wheel, the term "dish" being chosen 

 because the completed wheel roughly re- 

 sembles a dish, bowl or saucer. This ar- 

 rangement is necessarv if a wheel is to do 



FELLOE AND AXLE STOCl 



good service. As a wagon jogs along the 

 tendency is for the load to be thrust out- 

 ward on the axles, first to one side and 

 then to the other. This shock and strain 

 ui n til hubs would turn the wheel inside 

 I 1 1 ))roperly provided against. This 

 I I I sliod by the inward inclination 

 1 tl 1 1 es. How great this dish should 

 ho I'i 1 quistion that is differently answered 

 b% \iriou> makers, and will doubtless al- 

 br a subject of experiment. It varies 

 trom three fourths of an inch upward. 



Tiom the cabinet-making standpoint the 

 lishing of a wheel is a very important mat- 

 ter The hub should be properly mortised 

 1 > give the wheel the proper dish. Some 

 Ml ikcrs, It is said, do not devote due atten- 

 tion to this. Another part of the process 

 cf estaolishing the dish is attended to when 

 the rim is put on. The scheme employed by 

 ■1 number of high-grade establishments is 

 to saw one rim-joint a trifle V-shaped. When 

 the tire is shrunk on, the V-shaped opening 



THERE ARE 225,000 AXLES STORED IN 

 THESE TWO SHEDS 



closes up, drawing spokes and rim into the 

 exact dish required. The size of the dish 

 and of the V-shaped opening is supposed to 

 be ascertained by arithmetical calculations. 



The making of hubs is also an important 

 and interesting process, but it cannot be 

 described in detail here. It is now custom- 

 ary to treat hubs with a preservative. The 

 manner in which spokes are driven into the 

 hub is highly important. They should never 

 pierce quite to the metal boxing that holds 

 the "skein" or metal covering for the end 

 of the axle. The weight should be sustained 

 by the shoulder of the spoke, which gener- 

 ally rests on the outside of the hub, but 

 may be partly imbedded within it. The 

 "tenons" or parts wholly inside the hub 

 and rim are narrower than the part that is 

 exposed to the air. Spokes are best when 

 quarter-sawed, as the grain then runs from 

 rim to hub — an obvious advantage. 



There is some confusion in the use of the 

 terms "rim" and "felloe." Properly 

 speaking, the rim is the circle of wood to 

 which the tire is attached, and the felloes 

 are the individual parts of that circle. 

 Whether bent or sawed, rims are of at least 

 two pieces. A bent rim consists commonly 

 of two pieces or felloes, a sawed rim ordi- 



