14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



JAaking of Wagon Wood Work. 



FELLOES AND RIMS AS BIDE 



Correctly speaking, there is no difference be- 

 tween wagon felloes and rims, but for distinc- 

 tion those rims which are cut or sawed to shape 

 are called felloes, and those that are bent are 

 called rims. The light rims for buggies and 

 other vehicles of that class are bent. The 

 sawed felloe has not at any time entered ex- 

 tensively into this class of vehicle wood work, 

 but in the heavier classes of vehicles the sawed 

 felloe is the prime factor. Bent rims have 

 always been used more or less on farm wagons 

 and this use has increased materially during 

 the past few years. The earlier experiments 

 in making bent rims for the heavier classes of 

 wagons did not prove entirely successful, the 

 ble being the tendency of the wood to 

 split when put into hard service, in later 

 ih mure improved methods for 

 bending and a better understanding of the 



nature and action of » 1 under the bending 



strain, better results have been obtained, and 

 present Lndii ationa U seems that the bent 

 rim is going to be a considerable Factor in 

 ih. wagon wood work of the future. In the 

 Louisiana state forestry display at the St. 

 Louis Pair last year benl rims wen- a promi- 

 nent feature, and served to call attention to 

 their exten in tins < | :lS s of work, and 



also to tin fact thai t he wagon wood stock 

 industry has moved its center of operations 

 nil,, the Southland. 



In considering the manufacture of rims or 

 felloes in the light of a side line to sawmill 

 operations in oak, it is the wiser plan to make 

 rim strips of felloes because the successful 

 bending of rim strips calls for skilled 

 work, which it is not generally 

 able to undertake in the woods among the 

 sawmills. 'I'll.' best plan is t.. simply furnish 

 the strips .nt t.. dimension, and lei some vehi- 

 cle wood st...k concern do the bending. These 

 strips are cut into a variety of dimensions; 

 there is really no authorized list of standard 

 sizes. Each strip must be long enough to 

 make half a circle of the wheel for which it is 

 intended, and not only sizes in wheels but the 

 dimensions required in rims vary so much 

 that the only way to get at the matter is to 

 take up the subject with users of this class of 

 material and obtain from those who are in 

 the market lists of dimensions required. 



Ordinarily, it is the making of sawed fel- 

 loes that appeals most to the operator of small 

 sawmills cutting oak in the w Is. Notwith- 

 standing the inroads that have been made by 

 the bent rim in this trade, there are today 

 more sawed felloes used than ever before, am". 

 there is no doubt but that there will always 

 be a need for all the sawed felloes that can 

 be manufactured, especially if their manufac- 

 ture is confined to the utilization of scrap 

 stock. In spite of efforts to more closely econ- 

 omize in our oak forestry resources, there is 

 today an enormous quantity of oak going to 

 waste in sawmills and in the woods that could 



LINE TO OAK MANUFACTURE 



be manufactured to advantage into sawed 

 wagon stock. Short stock and cull planks two 

 inches and more in thickness that either go to 

 waste or are used to fill up mud holes iu the 

 lumber yard could be utilized in this work, 

 as the usual requirements are for pieces ap- 

 proximately two feet long, six inches and up 

 wide, and almost any thickness from two to 

 six iuches. To this we might add that there 

 are possibilities for even closer economy, for 

 there are some agricultural implement houses 

 that use felloes as short as ten or even eight 

 inches. There are opportunities also for util- 

 izing material that goes to waste in the 

 woods. The average logging crew goes into 

 the woods either after stock lengths in logs 

 or logs of specific lengths to fill certain bills 

 of timber. Everything that will not answer 

 . requirements is left in the woods, while 

 if one were making felloes as a side lino every 

 sound piece of oak two feet long could be cut 

 out and utilized. 



ry little while a protesting voice is raised 

 pointing out the enoimous quantities of val- 

 uable timber that are going to waste iu the 

 woods. This has probably served a certain 

 purpose in helping create a sentiment in favor 

 of closer economy, but what we need now is 

 not complaints, but suggestions of ways and 

 means to effect a closer clean-up in the woods. 

 It is iu this economical us.- of scrap stock that 

 the sawed felloe is of the greatest value, but 

 the commercial aspect is not to be slighted. 

 While it is possible to overdo any line of busi- 

 ness, and while prices on products made from 

 scrap stock are generally lower than they 

 ought to be, there is apparently room to util- 

 ize a large proportion of the timber thai is 

 going to waste in the woods in the manufac- 

 ture of sawed felloes, and make the work com- 

 menially profitable. The equipment necessary 

 to carry on this work is not expensive even 

 though one carry out the idea to the extent of 

 using up short blocks that 'could not be 

 handled through the regular sawmill and 

 would have to be bolted up on a regular short 

 log outfit. 



Roughly speaking, it takes a piece of lum- 

 ber six inches wide and twenty-four inches 

 long to make a si indard farm wagon felloe. 

 The thickness, of course, depends on the width 

 of tire to be used on the wheel. Where 1 Mi- 

 tires are used, which is about the smallest 

 size, felloes 1% inches thick, when green, are 

 called for; 1%-inch tires call for 2-inch stock; 

 2-inch tires call for 2V4-ineh stock, and so 

 on. The old standard heights for farm wagon 

 wheels are three feet eight inches and four 

 feet six indies, with six felloes in the small 

 wheel and seven in the large one, the net 

 length a little short of twenty-four inches, 

 which is the length stock is usually cut to for 

 making this class cf felloes so as to have 

 room for the wagon maker to trim for joints. 

 The usual practice, however, i- !.. oil Eelloes 



a little smaller than the circle indicated by 

 the sizes named, so that when the tire is put 

 on the finished rim the wheel will be the size 

 given. The intention of the present article is 

 not to go into detail regarding size and pal- 

 terns, for that is a matter which must be taken 

 up with the prospective user, and the sizes 

 given above have been mentioned merely by 

 way of illustration as to timber requirements, 

 etc. 



There are two general methods of manufac- 

 turing sawed wagon felloes, one by the use 

 of concave circular saws in connection with 

 specially designed machines for feeding the 

 stock to them, and the other by the use of 

 small band sawing machines ranging in size 

 from thirty to forty inches in diameter of 

 wheels. It is surprising that manufacturers 

 of machinery for this work have not done 

 more of late years to promote a livelier in- 

 terest in the manufacture of wagon wood 

 work. They may be doing a little in the way 

 of circulars, but there is not much in lumber 

 trade papers these days to call attention to 

 the possibilities of utilizing waste timber and 

 making money by installing machinery to man- 

 ufacture sawed wagon felloes. But, to re- 

 turn to the consideration of the relative mer- 

 its of the methods of manufacture, it may be 

 summed up by saying that the concave sawing 

 machine has greater capacity and offers facil- 

 ities for the least possible cost of production, 

 while on the other hand it is limited in its 

 scope. A band saw will make any size or 

 shape of felloe desired, but will not turn out 

 as much work as the concave saw. This brings 

 up the question of whether you want quantity 

 or variety. If you want quantity, and simply 

 make a specialty of farm wagon felloes of 

 a thickness not to exceed three inches, the 

 concave machine is the one to use. One must 

 bear in mind, however, that its work is lim- 

 ited as to thickness, because of the fact that 

 the saws, being concave, naturally do not cut 

 square through the timber, and this fault .mag- 

 nifies as the thickness of the timber increases 

 until a limit of three inches in thickness is 

 reached. 



The strong point in favor of the band saw 

 is the great variety of work possible, not only 

 in felloes, but wagon hounds, plow beams and, 

 in fact, any kind of shaped work you may 

 have a call for. In the making of heavy and 

 special sizes of felloes it is essential to have 

 a band saw, and it is really felloes of this 

 kind that bring the best prices. Even in the 

 manufacture of standard felloes a good band 

 saw in the hands of a competent operator will 

 show good returns in competition with con- 

 cave machines. With heavy work it is neces- 

 sary to scribe the work by pattern before saw- 

 ing, and in many mills this is done even on 

 standard farm wagon felloes. This work of 

 scribing takes about as much time as the saw- 

 ing, if it is done carefully, but it is the only 

 way to rot •'' 'lose i leanup and the best stock 

 out of the material at hand. Given a good 

 thirty six inch band s.-i» machine with a ono- 

 inch saw in g 1 order and a first-class oper- 



