I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to take a look around and see what's in the area. Thanks!

With the price of destroyer wheels so low, it might be advantageous and economical to buy one and have the hub machined to fit your needs.

Hrmm... this might be doable as well. Maybe I can find an old wheel on a boat I can repurpose.

Update:

I've discovered that cutting a perfect (or even near perfect) Hexagon is proving to be very challenging. Consider that to get a hexagon you have to make 12 cuts to make 6 joints, and if you're only .1 degree off on your cuts, you get 1.2 degrees of deviation and you start to see just how tough this has been. I had to remove my degree pointer on my sliding compound miter saw and sharpen it to give me a more accurate reading.

Anyway, I'm almost at the point where I have the hexagons done, and after that doing the cross pieces should be much less time consuming. Once I'm at that point I'll post pictures.

Progress, though not as much as I would like. I was sick much of the weekend, but I did get the first layer completed. Here's a pic of the first level. 11 pieces total. I also competed the hexagons, but I need to complete the 2nd and 3rd levels before I can start the glue-up.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Shouldn't the spokes go into the apex of the Hex, when you cut the circle the spokes will be compromised. I would overlay the wheel rim on your layup the pieces don't look wide enough to get a circle but that might just be my eyes lying to me.

I see what you're saying.

The next two courses will be 30 degrees offset to the one below it, with the spokes being the same, so there will be plenty of overlap. We're talking about face-on-face gluing, so the resulting joint will be stronger than the board itself. I'll post a picture as soon as I have the second course finished. It will make sense when it all comes together.

I'm aiming for a 1" diameter wheel edge. The hex pieces are 3.5" wide, which when arcing through the 60 degree slice it represents a 18" out from the center it should yield about a 1 1/4" wide strip. The 1/4" is my margin of error, since this is my first time. Most stuff I make I usually use a 1/16th or less margin. Better safe than sorry...

It might also be the angle of the shot that's deceiving.

I see it now, sorry for the second guessing, it looks like he has the two outside pieces going into the apex at the joint and the middle one has to be on the flats.

Don't worry about the second guessing. Sometimes I make mistakes, and I'm happy when people point them out. In fact, I'd rather they get pointed out BEFORE glue up!

Update:

I've completed the Hexagons. It took some doing, but they all fit tightly now. The next step is to finish all the connecting pieces.

Attached Thumbnails