I am making a coffee table with wheels on the two of the legs. I am curious if anyone has some advice on how to approach the joinery. I have a vague idea of how I want to do it, but I want to see what others think. I am looking for any thoughts on:
1. Joinery of wheels to dowel
2. Joinery and material for bushing in the leg
3. Amount and size of washers to maintain spacing between wheels and leg.
I have attached the basic idea below. I have one caveat, I need to maintain the two-wheel design on each leg. I can’t make one large wheel that is straddled by the leg.
Replies
I've had great success with simply press fitting the dowels into the wheels by cranking them together in a bench vise.
I'm assuming that you're using wooden wheels and dowels and not a carriage bolt or some other metal fastener.
I use this 'technique' quite a bit in toys for kids and I've never had one come apart.
I second cbolton's advice to use a wooden dowel for the wheel axle. Unless you plan on towing the table behind your car, you won't move it around enough to cause any wear, and bushings would be overkill.
If you have a lathe, and plan on turning the wheels, turn a raised hub on each one to space it away from the leg. An 1/8" should be plenty of gap.
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