Stone Lifter - Wooden Axles - A Study In Craftsmanship

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For centuries, axles were made from wood.  Eventually, mass produced steel axles eliminated the need for wooden axles. What was also eliminated was the craftsmanship of the carriage maker. These artisans were experts at shaping the hub ends of axles to receive a wheel. They were celebrated for the tools they made to do this.

Stone Lifter - Wooden Axles and Lynch Pin Assemblies

The axles of the stone lifter are a testament to fine craftsmanship. The ends of the axle, or hubs, had to be perfectly formed to accept the wheels. It was essential that the wheels turned properly on the hubs.

Since the inside of the wheels were tapered, the hubs had to be tapered as well. This made the hubs weaker at the end. A key slotted through a key-way in the end of the hubs was used to lock the mounted wheels in place. The key-way weakened the end of the hubs further. The solution was to fit a steel lynch pin assemblies to the hubs.

To avoid interfering with the turning of the wheel, the lynch pin assemblies had to be recessed into the hubs. The lynch pin assemblies extended beyond the hubs into the axles proper. Bolted in place, with a bolt that ran completely through the axles, the lynch pin assemblies were well secured. Steel collars, around the base of the hubs, served to hold the assemblies in place. With the steel lynch pin assemblies there was less stress on the ends of the hubs.

The lynch pin assemblies made removing a wheel very easy. Remove the key from the key-way and slide the wheel off. And those wheels had to be taken off regularly in order to grease the hubs and insides of the wheels. The squeaky wheel really did get the grease.

  

Stone Lifter – The Front Axle

Stone Lifter - Front Axle

From the above illustration, you can see that the front wheels of the stone lifter were set close together. This was advantageous for making sharp turns, such as those required to get the stone lifter in position over a stone fence. The stone lifter was designed to just that.

The above rendering also illustrates how the front axle pivoted around the frame of the stone lifter by means of a simple steel post. A simple but effective technology.

Images prepared from a digital 3D model of an actual stone lifter. Modelling was in Amapi. Bryce rendered the images. Post production was in Adobe Photoshop. The interactive graphic was prepared in Adobe Flash.