English Wheel Build

Well after a few years of dreaming about buying an English Wheel I sat down and designed one. It had to be practical, large enough to accommodate fairly large automotive panels, and most importantly rigid. The overall design is quite simple...consisting of two 1/2" plates joined by a rolled 4"x3/8"tk flatbar set between the C's. The frame(without the base) is 52" high with a 32" throat(from the anvil centre) and a 8.5"spine...which should hopefully result in a pretty rigid unit. The 1/2" steel plate C's were ordered from the local steel supplier who laser cut them to the provided CAD drawings. The pieces were then welded together and delivered to the shop.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp53/invisionprototypes/INVEW-1-2.jpg
C-frame welded up - it was like Christmas when the unit was delivered. Took a few minutes to 'carefully' stand it up. You can kiss your legs goodbye if this 400+lb baby falls on you.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp53/invisionprototypes/INVEW-3-2.jpg
I wanted to minimize it's footprint, yet ensure that it would remain vertical. We had had an old rear hub from a 52HP IH tractor that had the lug holes worn out so I dragged it into the shop in preparation for mocking up. Once the centre of gravity was determined(with the additional weight of the adjuster and anvil weights taken into account) a flange was created. As for a comfortable wheeling height - I'm 6'2", a lower roller from my tipping machine was clamped temporarily into place. I then positioned the frame so that when wheeling the imaginary sheet was around the level of my sternum. The vertical 5.5" pipe was then cut to length and welded into place.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp53/invisionprototypes/INVEW-2-2.jpg
After standing up the C-frame, the adjuster is mocked up

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp53/invisionprototypes/INVEW-4-22.jpg
The frame and parts were painted with some leftover pearl orange paint. The upper adjuster is assembled from the top with a cover plate that bolts down and encloses the thread assembly.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp53/invisionprototypes/INVEW-5-22.jpg
All assembled with the upper and lower anvils trued with each other.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp53/invisionprototypes/INVEW-6-22.jpg
Close up of the upper 8.5" anvil and one of the six lower anvils....The inertia of the solid upper wheel has a great feel when rolling pieces.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp53/invisionprototypes/INVEW-7-22.jpg
I decided to mount the anvil holder on the side that I'll be using the wheel the most. I've seen some placed on the back, but if the unit is back up against the wall as in my case ... I feel it'll make it more of a challenge to get to them. I'll also be adding a sheet metal cover that will flip down over the holder to keep the dust off of the anvils when not in use. You may also notice the flange plates that join the base to the C frame - it's adjustable to move the centre of gravity if required at any point in time.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp53/invisionprototypes/INVEW-9-22.jpg
Moving the unit into the metal shaping bay. Since this photo was taken the upper adjuster handle was fabricated(in case you catch the missing handle :))