The wheels of a cart is an artisan carpentry project that I had been wanting to do for quite some time and, finally, the time has come. Today we will see, step by step, how to do them.
This is the third and last article in which we have seen how he carries out a decorative cart, in a rustic as well as childlike style, which incorporates a personalized original.
Today I’m not going to roll up, as usual, at the entrance of the post. So let’s get started.
How to make the type and wheels of a cart
Before you start, and in case you haven’t seen the two previous articles since this one follows, you can do so by following the links below.
Previous tasks
As I indicated, this article is the conclusion of a project made up of three pos. Below I leave the links to the aforementioned articles in case you want to take a look at them.
Rustic-style custom mural
Decorative cart, top
structure for the wheels
To start, we have to make the lower structure, to which the axles of the two wheels will be attached.
We have made this structure with solid pine slats with a square section of 3.5 x 4.5 cm.
We have started by cutting the different pieces with the jigsaw. And we have joined them together with through screws and barrel nuts, just like we did in the previous video of this trilogy.
This type of assembly provides a very robust joint, without weakening the wood.
We have previously measured, marked and drilled to be able to make the union.
We have also lowered the mouth of the drill a little, to be able to insert the head of the screws, so that they do not hinder us when fitting the structure to the lower part of the cart.
Once these joints have been made, we have reinforced each leg with two diagonal pieces of wood. The latter, we have fixed them with lag screws.
This is how the lower structure of the cart remained.
For greater comfort, before mounting it, we gave it a coat of wenge-colored lasur, of course, from Cedria, our trusted supplier.
If you look at the photo, the wood sucks the product unevenly.
In our case it came in handy, since we wanted to give a completely rustic image. However, if you need a finer, more even finish; Before applying the lasur, you must sand the wood and give a coat of base lasur.
wheels of a cart
rolling area
While the lasur dries, we will go on to make the wheels of the cart.
We have made the rolling area of the wheel with a Black+Decker milling machine, together with a compass. The latter is one of the various accessories of this type of machine.
At its end it has a small tip that fits into a small hole previously made in the wood. In this way they make perfect circles.
Disclaimer
Como la carreta va a ser puramente decorativa, las ruedas las hemos hecho con madera de contrachapado. Sin embargo, si su misión fuese la de llevar peso, tendríamos que haberlas hecho con madera maciza, y de otro modo totalmente distinto.
Well, each wheel is made up of two sheets of 18mm thick plywood. Which makes a total thickness of the wheel of 36mm.
The first thing is to calculate a size proportionate to the rest of the car, so that they fit well.
In our case we have given an outer diameter of 64 cm, and a height of 5 cm for the rolling area.
Therefore, we coupled the compass to the milling machine, assembled a straight milling cutter, and made the external cut.
Once finished, we reduced the cutting distance, and made the cut of the inner face of the wheel.
As you can see in the photo, it was a perfect cut.
Once the first piece of the wheels has been cut, we remove the compass, and change the milling cutter for another, copying milling cutter.
The straight copying cutter is identical to the other, but it incorporates a bearing at its end, which will slide along the guide, copying its shape.
Therefore, so that the four pieces that we will need are identical, we use this as a guide, fixing it on another board, with some lag screws.
We turned the set upside down, and practiced cutting. These three pieces, as with the previous one, first we cut the outside, and then the inside.
Making the wheel axles
Now it is the turn of the axes. Each spindle is made up of four pieces of plywood. But this time, we cut them with the crown bit.
Once two of the pieces have been joined, we mark where the spokes will go.
Our wagon wheels will have ten spokes. So that each of the spokes is exactly in its place, and the wheels are impeccable, we have included in the video tutorial that you have below, how to make a decagon, in a few seconds and graphically.
Well, once we know how to do it, we will continue with our work.
We fix the axis to the column drill with a sergeant, and we make the holes with a 16mm drill bit.
With a hole punch or a drill, we make, on both sides, the holes where the two bearings will be embedded. Therefore, these holes have to be exactly the same diameter as the bearings.
We fix with mounting adhesive, a wooden ring, to simulate the axles of the old carts. We reformed it with a few tips. And we remove the excess adhesive.
Drilling the rolling area
Next, we return to the rolling part.
Here we also have to mark, with the help of a square, where the spokes will go. And, with the column drill, we proceed exactly as before, making some blind holes.
Now we disassemble the two pieces that make up the rolling area of each wheel, and that we had screwed together.
In the holes of the axis, we apply adhesive and mount the spokes.
Once done, we also apply adhesive to the rolling area, fit the two pieces together as if we were closing a book, and screw them on the inside, that is, the part that cannot be seen.
We remove the excess adhesive, and let it set.
Installing the bearing system
Now we will move on to the bearing system.
Here we will use, on each wheel, an 8mm diameter screw of sufficient length. Two wide brim washers. Various normal washers. And several normal and brake nuts, also called self-locking.
We mount on the screw, in the part of the head, the pieces of one of the sides. A wide flange washer, a pair of normal washers, a bearing, and a normal nut to fix the assembly.
We pass the screw through the axis, and we embed the bearing.
We assemble the rest of the pieces, symmetrically at the other end.
And we anchor the assembly to the shaft with a self-locking nut.
In the photo you can see how the axes would look on both sides.
Painting the wheels of the wagon
Well, we have finished the carpentry part of our wheels. Now we need to give it some color.
As we cannot forget that it is a children’s decoration, we are going to contrast the color of the rest of the wagon. So we will paint them with white lasur.
Assembling the structure of the wheels
Now we return with the car, while the lasur dries.
In the structure that we made at the beginning of the article, we drilled holes to mount the wheels and, with lag bolts, we anchored it to the bottom of the platform. To then mount the two wheels.
Making the cart shot
Finally, with two strips of 6 x 3 cm section, we make the shot.
To give the cart more color, we apply a coat of teak-colored lasur.
Once dry, we fix the straps, which we have improvised with an old belt, but which does not clash at all.
Video tutorial how to make the wheels of a cart
If you have been following us for a long time, you already know that we like to be as clear as possible in our explanations, so below we include a video tutorial of the entire process.
We already have our cart finished, which only needs our little friend to pull it.
other communion decoration
The cart that we have finished is part of the decoration of a Communion. Therefore and already put, I will show you the rest of the decoration.
We have made, with swimming churros, some nice horses, as souvenirs, which we have given to all the invited children.
A dinosaur-themed candy table with a huge erupting volcano, a triceratops head poking out of the brush, a dinosaur nest, and lots and lots of dinos and soooo lots of trinkets.
And another table of sweets, horse riding theme, located next to the cart. With a huge mural of the protagonist of this day with her horse Nana de Ella.
Both tables were 2 meters wide by 1 meter deep.
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