English Wheel build

[worntorn]

thanks Guys.

I really want to get back to the Egli so I put quite a few hours in on the English Wheel yesterday. My wife was not thrilled, but I don't think she will leave me! Hope not anyway.

I made up the yoke for the upper wheel and the Quick release. I was thinking about purchasing the Quick release assembly, but the cost for it alone was $250 at Hoosier Profiles. I think that included the yoke but it did not include the top wheel.

My budget doesn't allow for that, so it got built out of scraps. The QR is just two eccentrics that fit into holes bored into either side of the yoke. I bored a 1.5" hole thru both sideds the yoke (yoke is a made from a 4" long piece of 4"x8"x 3/8")on the mill, then cleaned up a piece of 1- 3/4 round stock 2 and a half inches long. Next I drilled a 3/4" hole right thru this piece, but made the hole 1/4 off centre. This will give 1/2" lift. The axle for the 8" top wheel slides thru this 3/4" hole.

Next up was to part the 2.5 " piece in half. Now I had the two eccentrics. I turned them down to fit nicely into the 1.5" holes bored in the yoke, but left a shoulder which will rotate against the outside of the yoke. I milled a bit of a flat on the yoke around the bores for this.
Next I made the axle, which is a piece of 1" stainless. I turned it down to fit the Harbor Freight 8" top wheel, which has double bearings with a 22 mm bore. This got stepped down a bit at the ends to fit into those 3/4" holes I drilled into the eccentrics. I'm quite impressed with the HF wheel. it was only 50 bucks, less than the cost to buy an 8" dia. 4140 blank. it runs within 2 ten thousandths of concentric. It is also extremely hard, which is good for doing shapes in steel.

Finally there was some drilling and tapping to do in order to secure the axle to the eccentric via the handle. The other end of the axle got welded to the opposite eccentric. The whole thing comes apart from the handle end if necessary.

With a little lithium grease applied, the eccentrics turn very smoothly. Cost was a few cents for the two socket head screws, the rest was from leftovers.

I need to make a finger grip for the operating lever and figure out some kind of indexing method.