Steering Wheel project

So I was off from work for eight weeks after having arthroscopic knee surgery to repair multiple tears in my meniscus and an arthritic debridement. The injury was the result of an at work off-road motorcycle accident in December 2014. After the accident I stubbornly went back to work because I thought the pain would just go away. It didn't. Needless to say I finally had to have the injury taken care of.

That left me to wonder what I was going to do for eight weeks. I could only spend so much time on the SOC everyday. Of course it was the SOC that led me to my steering wheel project. CALB was complaining about his steering wheel not being a Nardi. Based on the picture he posted ours were the same wheel. So I went online and looked at all sorts of cool wheels but decided there was no way i was spending those kinds of funds on a new wheel. Not to mention a new adapter and horn button.

I decided to make my own wheel. I figured I had the time. I had the necessary tools and heck, I took several years of wood shop in junior high and high school. (That was a long time ago) I bought some Cherry and some Walnut as well as some cheap Pine to practice with. I was going to cut out an 8 trapezoid pieces to help line up the grain but my chop saw was giving me fits, most likely due to an old and possibly warped blade. No matter how many times I practiced on the Pine I couldn't get the 16 cuts to form an 8 section circle.

I bought a cheap mitre box and back saw and decided I would make just 8 cuts and do a 4 section form. I practiced again on some Pine and it worked out. I thin cut the Walnut to 1/8th inch thick and glued that to one of the 48" Cherry stock and sanded it smooth. I made all the 45 degree cuts and glued everything up. I glued a center spline in each of the box forms I made and cut the 2 forms into circles on my router table. I tried to think everything through before each stage but I made plenty of mistakes along the way. Needless to say my circles were out of round and I had to do some router work by hand after one of the center splines broke.

Since I had a Grant along with the adapter and horn button i though I'd do the project with a donor Grant wheel. Troy graciously donated a wheel and I stripped all the wood off of it. I honestly thought it was Bakelite or something but it was actually wood.  The outer rim was very thick and the ends of the spokes that attached to the rim were tack welded, although not very cleanly, so I cleaned all that up as well. Due to the thickness of the outer rim i kew my wheel was going to have to be pretty much the same size as the Grant. No biggie.

I router out the grove in the top and bottom blank for the rim to sit in. Then I router out the gap for the spokes to come through. I glued everything together with Gorilla glue because it is a polyurethane glue and it expands to almost five times it's size. That filled all the gaps inside the wheel and held the rim firmly in the wood. 

The wheel was thicker than I wanted so I got to work with the router and a small drum sander attached to my drill. I got it to an 1" wide and about an 1 1/4" thick. I sanded it all the way up to 320 grit and got it smooth. Then I took a rasp and I filed finger grooves all the way around the back of the steering wheel except for where the spokes are at. I sanded all that again until smooth. I stained it and finished it with Spar Varnish sanding between coats until I had 6 coats on it.

I tried to protect the spokes the best I could but scratched them a little deep so i sanded them with wet/dry sandpaper then finished them with some compound. The  spokes have a bit of a satin finish which looks pretty good.

The wheel is pretty much the same size as the Grant and it has a bit of a square face and a rounded back. Not perfect, but it was my first time making a steering wheel. I may try another one but will try making it by steam bending.

I spent maybe $75.00 for wood, stain, and varnish.

I know it was long but thanks for reading.