[SEL] wooden bell wheel O.T.

[Germoamer at aol.com]

This is my latest project.  It is a 4ft diameter x 1 3/4 thick(2 layers) 
wooden wheel that goes on the church bell for the rope to go around and ring the 
bell. I guess the bell weighs over 1000lbs. The old one rotted out after 40-50 
years.  I have built it out of cypress and waterproof expanding polyurethane 
glue.  In photo 6 you can see the glue still coming out in the rope groove. 
After drying, I will scrape off extra glue, stain, and then paint two coats. We 
took two bottle jacks and some timbers and climbed up thru the steeple, jacked 
up one side of the bell slightly and removed the cast legs from one side of 
bell and removed the old wheel.  To fit and cut all the pieces I made a full 
scale template on masonite.  If I had not done this, I could not figure any other 
way to cut the ends of the outer rim radiused pieces to butt together 
perfectly.  The inner hub is cast steel which adapts the wheel to the bell axle.  It 
has been a fun project. Should last longer than me!

http://www.oldengine.org/members/schmutz/images/wheel1
http://www.oldengine.org/members/schmutz/images/wheel2
http://www.oldengine.org/members/schmutz/images/wheel3
http://www.oldengine.org/members/schmutz/images/wheel4
http://www.oldengine.org/members/schmutz/images/wheel5
http://www.oldengine.org/members/schmutz/images/wheel6

Tom Schmutz
Concord, Va. USA
Germoamer at aol.com