Hunter’s wife, Leah, is a cowgirl. She owns a couple of horses and enjoys barrel racing with her best friend.
For years, she and her family have attended the Chuck Wagon
Races http://www.chuckwagonraces.com/. This is an annual event that features a
national chuck wagon race along with a weekend of food, fun and music. It’s a family tradition that she looks
forward to every year.
Hunter wasn’t able to attend this year. He’s a full time
fire fighter and works most week-ends. However he was inspired to craft a wagon
wheel chandelier. He started by
selecting a couple boards about 12” wide and laying them side by side. He chose
rough cut oak planks and made sure the wood was completely dried out to prevent
cracks and splitting. Using a pencil, he drew a circle on the boards and cut it
out using a band saw. Next he fabricated metal shims to connect each section of
the circle. When the circle was complete the connections were clamped and glued
together until set.
Now for the hub. The first one we made was wood and
metal but it didn’t give him the look he wanted so he fabricated a metal one
using the plasma torch. Once that was completed we were able to determine the
spoke length. He used smaller blocks of wood and turned them down with the wood
lathe.
One of the more delicate parts is getting the size of the
ends to match the holes drilled into the wagon wheel. This is time consuming and
requires a lot of patience. But it’s so rewarding to be able to create
something you’ve only seen in your mind.
The spokes are clamped and glued in place until set. At
this point, Hunter fabricated a metal band and attached it to the outside of
the wooden wheel.
His wagon wheel is complete but the chandelier
is not. He still has to decide the
lighting design. And while he’s
deciding, I think I need to make my own wagon wheel but as an end table.
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