Spokes

I picked up the 65 long spokes and the 25 short spokes today. I ordered a few more of each length just in case I screw some up.

I also picked up the little M3 round nuts to fit at the end of each spoke on the side of the hub.

A lot to be done! I don't think I will finish these in one setting.

Penny farthing tyre

Just a quick update: I ordered 6 meters of penny farthing solid tyre last week with an English company and had the tyre shipped to some of my best mates who live in the UK. So that's excellent news to start the weekend!
There is still enough to be done before I will be able to cut the tyres to length and fit them on the wheels.

I received no word from the supplier where I ordered the spokes. Hopefully they will arrive next week.

Have a good weekend!

Bigwheel hub - part 2

A lot of drilling this evening: the 30 hole pattern in each hub halve has been drilled:

Next step will be to weld everything together in the correct position. I must not forget to make sure the holes from one hub halve fall right in the middle of the holes in the other halve. If I fail to do this, the spoke layout will be screwed.
As you can see: I used a paper pattern with 30 radii to transfer the position of the holes to the hub halves.

Bigwheel hub

As I said: I figured out a new bigwheel hub concept. I finished the rough idea on my lathe today:

This picture shows an almost finished hub half.

The axle of 10 mm is just a temporary solution to keep the inner faces of the hub halfs parallel to each other. An important thing to keep in mind if I don't want any trouble with fitting the spokes later on.  A tube will be welded in between these hubs later on.
The axle that will be used will be 20 mm diameter.

I had some trouble welding the rings to the plates because I don't have a MIG welding device so I just spot welded them to keep everything in place. I might decide to ask a professional welder to do the complete welding for me so I'm sure it will be a good weld.
After this part will be completely finished, I plan on nickle-plating it. Nice and shiny hubs are a great contrast with the black parts of the bike. Other nickle plated parts will be the handle bars and the cranks.

New hub concept

I wasn't quite happy with the hub concept, so I changed it. This time no aluminium involved.
The idea is to weld a ring to a plate and drill 30 holes in the ring to allow the spokes to penetrate. The spokes will be kept in place with nuts.
I started turning the rings tonight:

It will be quite some work: after turning the rings, I have to weld them to a plate, turn the outside of this assembly so it is smooth, turn the inside of the ring to a certain angle, lay out the hole pattern, drill the holes, and put a hollow tube in between the hubs that will accept the axle.
Since everything is made out of steel now, I will be able to nickle the parts for a nice vintage shine!

A quick simulation of the work to be done:

Like I said before, making drawings is a great way to simulate the actual concept. I was able to calculate exact spoke length: 644 mm.

By the way: I ordered 65 front wheel spokes and 25 rear wheel spokes today, together with the little M3 nuts to keep the spokes in place.

Bigwheel hole pattern

For you people wanting to know how I made an even distribution of the holes for the spokes, here is the way I did it.
I first made a long strip of paper. This strip was put in the bottom of the rim all around it (actually, EXACTLY once around it). Now the strip of paper represents the complete circumference of the wheel.
I folded the paper in half and then again in half: these folds represent the exact 4 quarters of the wheel.
I calculated the distance between two spokes and laid out the marks with my compass:

Tip: the compass I used has two points, so I could 'swivel' from point to point, leaving a tiny puncture hole between positions.

After this, I put the piece of paper back in the rim and transferred the marks on the paper to the rim:

Easy as that! Now next step will be the drilling.