Robert Bonomi wrote:

In article ,
J. Clarke wrote:
On 7/31/2010 10:13 AM, Larry W wrote:
In ,
J. wrote:
Working on a decorative wagon wheel in wood, but I'd really like to put
a metal tire on it. Now, that's no trick if it's just for looks--make a
steel ring that's close enough to the dimension that a little epoxy
under it will hold it, but the devil in me wants to do a proper job and
shrink the thing.

Trouble is that this is a no-burn area so I can't just light a fire in
the back yard and heat the tire.

So, any ideas on how to go about this? The wheel is 2 feet in diameter,
making the tire too big to fit in a barbecue or the like. If I was
making a bunch of 'em I'd be tempted to just build a charcoal pit big
enough and call it a barbie, but that's a lot of work for one wheel.

And yeah, I know I can find a blacksmith, but I'm more interested in the
making than in having a wheel.

2 feet in diameter is about the size of a large pizza. Will it fit
in your oven?

No. 21 wide by 17 deep. There's also the question of whether it gets
hot enough for good take-up. The tire doesn't just have to fit, it has
to be a little undersized when cold so that it loads the wooden parts in
compression--that's where the strength of the wheel comes from. 500F
will give about a quarter inch of expansion with low carbon steel, red
heat will give close to a half inch. The various 1800s and early 1900s
blacksmithing journals suggest that the iron in use at the time would
expand more than this.

By the way, the large pizza from the big chains is 14-15 inch, the
independents may go 18.


Cassano's used to sell a 40" party pizza, but you had to order it
three days before the party. The price was about $30, 25 years ago. I
always wanted to see how much I could eat, in one try. When I was in my
20s, we used to have pizza eating contests. We had a half hour for
lunch, which gave us 20 minutes to eat. I could put away one and a half
18" thick crust pizza and two large glasses of Pepsi. I weighted 175
pounds. The only one in the group who ever beat me weighed close to 400
pounds.

http://cassanos.com/


Yeahbut applies. a standard commercial pizza oven holds typically
*six* minimum (16-18") and will hit into the 8-900F range if pushed.


A lot of places use belt drive ovens these days. They look like
early hot air reflow soldering machines.


Now, arranging to "borrow' a pizza place's oven, *that's* a whole nuther
level of complexity. grin

Similarly, it'd take a *really* big ceramics kiln to fit that tire in.