Starting a blog was something I didn’t want to do – I thought I would have more than enough to do to deal with the day-to-day regular content of this site. For the most part that is true, but I find that there is something missing: some of the planning, trials and failures that go before the conclusion of a successful project. This is important to me, (and I assume to some others as well) to hash out and go over some of the details that wouldn’t normally be covered in an article. The idea is to chronicle, in words and pictures, the things I’m currently working on and my plans for future projects, with an eye on keeping it fairly interesting.
So, To start the ball rolling…
I spent part of the late afternoon working on a new wheel design for my homemade band saw. What’s wrong with the old ones? Well, they have a couple of issues that I’d like to resolve. First, they are heavy. In and of itself this is not a big deal, but it does compound the second problem: they are not very well balanced. To be honest, I put these together last year in a bit of a hurry, just trying to press onward and get the saw done. In my haste, I did a sloppy job and now, considering how well the rest of the saw turned out, I have the motivation to correct my mistake.

I had the idea of making the new wheels with four spokes – two solid wood parts that were half lapped in the centre. The rim of the wheel would be a bent lamination of wood strips, each about 1/8″ thick, to create a rim that is 1-1/8 wide, 1/2″ thick around the wheel.
I started with two pieces of pine, 3″ wide to form the spokes. I cut the half laps in the middle with my router table, being as accurate as possible. I then glued these together and left them overnight to dry. So far, so good.
This afternoon, I started the rim. This is where the ‘wheels’ came off my plan. Once again, I fell victim to my own impatience and laziness; or maybe giving myself an out: I was not entirely convinced that the laminated rim idea was a great one to begin with, so I decided to try it but with cheaper material (not wanting to waste my good hardwood if it didn’t pan out).
I used very clear spruce, the only defect was a small worm hole that I thought would have no effect on the strength. I cut four strips and soaked them in water, to get them to bend easier. The water worked and the wood bent easily, except (wouldn’t you know it…) at that worm hole where it snapped in two. Effort down the drain, I cut my losses and gave up on that scheme.
I then had the bright idea to use 1/2″ Baltic birch plywood for the rim. Cut it 1-1/4″ wide and make kerf cuts to allow it to bend around to form the rim.
Again, this seemed to be a good plan – I’d fill the kerfs with PL before bending to end up with a more solid rim. Not wanting to risk it, I wet the face of the plywood strip that wasn’t kerfed to help bending. In bending it around the spokes (without an outer form to hold the shape), it over-bent in a few places, making for a less than perfectly round rim. Disgusted, and before I could consider a fix, I took it off and threw it in the trash.

Lesson learned: in doing it, do it well or not at all. If there are doubts, maybe a better strategy is to decide if the effort required to get quality results is worth it.