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Wheels
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In another horse related job, Mr.Ambroz also maintained the wheels of the equipment drawn by the horses. Instead of rubber, wheels had rims made of steel.eventually these would wear and need replacement
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Bare wheel
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The bare wood of a wheel as shown to the left could never have withstood the use they were subject to.
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Wheel measure
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This device would be rolled around the outside of a wheel. It would then be rolled down a strip of steel to transfer the measurement. An allowance would be made so as to have room to rivet the ends together and the steel would be cut and then curved.
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Curvature gauge
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As the steel band was being bent, the bow shaped instrument shown here would be used to ensure the curvature was right for the particular size of wheel being worked on and that the curvature was even.. When both ends matched up, the rim would be rivetted to form a hoop such as seen in the following picture.
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Rim
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Rim shrinker
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The machine shown on the left is a wheel shrinker. The rim would be placed in it and the lever would be worked. This compressed the steel making the rim marginally smaller than the wheel itself. It also put a curve across the rim (ie. made the center higher tthan the edges. Once this process was accomplished, a fire would be started in a pit that was for that purpose. The rim would be placed in the fire to heat. This caused it to expand until it was of a size to fit easily onto the wheel. As it cooled, it shrank back down to a size smaller than the wheel. This made a virtually inseperable fit without damaging the integrity of the wheel with nails or bolts.
