Wheel Jig – Part 2

Today I made some improvements to the wheel rim jig, I marked out the outer rim using a transom arm protractor. That is, a protractor that is made by fixing a batten to the centre of the circle and then rotating the batten through 360 degrees marking a line at the end of the arm. This gives you a circle. Then I cut along the line with a jigsaw to leave me with a circle. I still need to rasp down some high spots and fill some low spots, but it gives me the shape that I need.

I drew a line through the centre of the circle to give me the starting point. This line passes through the centre point in the circle, the line gives me 0^o and 180^o. From there, I marked off points at 36^o, 72^o, 108^o, 144^o and back to 180^o. As the circle is divided by an even number, I can simply draw a line from each of these five points to the opposite side of the circle to give me 10 equal divisions.

Next, I marked out a point on each of the division lines about 1 and a half inches back (2.5cm) from the perimeter and drilled holes through for the jig clamps. Turn the jig over and clean up the slight tear-out from the drill and, presto, a wheel rim jig is made.

You should be able to draw a straight line between each opposing pair of jigs and they should all meet in the centre of the circle.

I may need to fix another layer of fence palings to the jig to make it thick enough. Otherwise there will be a tendency for the laths to warp because one side or the other of the clamp will be off-set.

 

The threaded bar that is used in the clamp has been left quite long so that I can have enough clamp to make a rim up to about 15cm.

In the top photograph, I have put the topmost clamp all the way through and brought the next two clamps all the way forward so that I can use the clamp as a hanger to hang the clamp off the ground. I have also got a hole drilled through that was at 45^o from the first hole. This will be where I can hang the jig up in my workshop. Hanging the jig means that I can have bench-space cleared up while I wait for the epoxy to cure. The epoxy that I will be using is a two-part marine epoxy. This epoxy has a little bit more flexibility in it than other woodworking epoxies and the wheels will take a bit of bumping around when under load.

One of the reasons that I have made this jig with 10 jig clamps is that I intend to make my wheels with 10 spokes. The clamps also provide me with a guide for making the spokes.

Anyway, that’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed it.

Making Cart Wheels

I need to make some cart wheels for my planned goat cart. Some time ago, I had some jig clamps made (to my design) by a local engineering company, they are simply a pair of round bar of equal size and diameter. The bottom piece is tapped so that a bolt can be passed through it, while the top piece has a hole for the bolt to pass through. When the bolts (2) are tightened, the two pieces are brought together.

The idea is that you have a timber form and you drill a hole through the form and pass the tapped clamp piece through the hole. The work piece that needs to be clamped is then put on the form and the top piece of the clamp is added with the bolts (I have fixed nyloc nuts to the ends of the threaded rod to make my bolts). I have 10 of these clamps.

On another project that I was working on, I made some crude timber wheels (using fence palings).

The wheel was only being used in a “proof-of-concept” so I never actually used the wheel. The next part is to mark up the wheel and put in the holes for the jig clamps. There are 10 clamps, so 10 holes around 360o means that they will be at 36^o from each other … well I can work with that. First, drill one hole and put the clamp in.

Here you can see what I mean, one part of the clamp is fixed in the jig, while the other is able to move in and out by turning the bolts top and bottom. The only real drawback with this design is that it is easy for the piece to skew, so I have to be careful when tightening the bolts.

So, to prove the concept for you, here is a piece of Huon pine that I cut from a larger piece, this is called a lath. I cut many of these laths to make laminated longbows from (another story for another time).

I’ve placed another jig clamp at 45^o (because it is easier to measure with what I had at hand. I will put the rest of the clamps at 36^o).

You can see how the clamps are pulling the Huon pine in to the shape of the former.

For this to work properly, I will need to steam the lath (and the lath will need to be much longer). I will be cutting many more laths on my table saw from Tasmanian Oak since that’s a fairly easily obtained timber in the widths and lengths that I need. I also need to refine the timber wheel that I am using as a form. It is not a perfect circle. For that I need to set up my router on a swing arm from the centre of the wheel. I’ll use a straight cut router bit so that the wheel is cut cleanly from the centre.

The lath will be set on the forming jig while pliant from steaming and then taken off the former. When the lath has cured, I will then use epoxy to glue it to another lath until I have a wheel rim that is approximately as high as it is wide.

In between laminations, I will leave the progressing wheel rim on the jig as the next lath will need to be formed to the wheel rim as it goes.

The above lath is about 3mm thick and 30mm wide, so I’d need about 10 laths to make a wheel. Also, each lath needs to be about 3mm longer than the previous one to account for the increase in thickness.

So, there you go. Apart from a bit of tidying up in the workshop that was my playing around in the workshop.

Tomorrow I have a Goat Judging course to attend, so I won’t be doing any more work on this project until Sunday.

Goat Judging

This weekend will be the first weekend of the National Goat Judging program for my lovely wife, my youngest daughter and myself.

We have been working on the “project” which is about the six main dairy got breeds in Australia (Anglo-Nubian, Saanen, British Alpine, Toggenburg, Melaan and Australian Brown Goat). The breed history, description and disqualifying faults, etc.. I’ve found the project to be fairly easy and kinda fun. I’ve certainly found some excellent resources on goat breeds while doing this project.

The course is held over two weekends and covers various judgy stuff. When we are done, we will be able to start attending goat shows as assistant judges until we have enough experience and knowledge to be able to step up to the plate and do some judging ourselves.

I figure that doing this course can only help me to become a better goat breeder since it will give me access to SO many more goat breeders and goats nationally and I can get a better understanding of exactly what makes a good dairy goat. The other perk is the going along to agricultural shows as a judge.

I still need to help my youngest with her project. She knows what she needs to know to complete the project, she just doesn’t have the confidence in herself to be able to articulate it.

I am very proud of my youngest daughter and how she has been taking an interest in goats and goat showing. She loves the attention that she gets from the other goat folk and from their goats too (particularly the kids … but, meh, that’s to be expected). I am hoping that this experience will give my youngest some skills, knowledge and self-confidence that can carry her through the rest of her life. She is a peach.

Close encounter with a Sheep

Today, the two Wiltipol sheep (Peaches and Apricot) got in and helped me in the workshop. I was working on my forge in the lean-to and when I went in to the workshop to get some tools, they were poking around looking very curious about what was in the workshop. Now these two sheep have always been very nervous and stand-offish, so I was very surprised to find them in my workshop.

After I shepherded them out, they went into the lean-to to see what I was doing in there.

Back and forth we went, me moving casually and just getting about my work, while the sheep seemed to be having a bit of a game of it.

Later, I tried to call the sheep in closer and they came. This is about as close to us as the sheep have come without being corralled for drenching or worming. I was quietly happy.

They are lovely sheep and, it would appear, much more curious than I thought that sheep were. Still nowhere near as curious as the goats, but then goats are known for their outgoing nature.

Was there a memo that says “Ruminants Escape Today”?

After fixing the fence in the sheep paddock, I went to check on the goats. The goats were making their normal racket … but something was wrong. Holly was being much more vocal than she normally is. Then I noticed that there was a fence between Holly and the rest of the herd. Damn, she’s got out again!

Holly had gone over the fence into the blackberries and, when she saw me, she acted like some weird mojo had transported her to the wrong side of the fence and she had NOTHING to do with it. She followed me down the fence to our front gate and then bolted back to our property. That’s one of the truly wonderful things about goats, they have a strong sense of place. The only problem then was getting her back into her paddock.

I had intended to move the goats up into the top paddock for a bit of a forage, so I had some goat treats in my pocket. Collecting the rest of the herd wasn’t too difficult, and getting them all into the top paddock with some bribery worked just fine.

The rest of the goats were at the fence wanting some of that sweet, sweet grass from the other side too. Although Darius did lose his concentration temporarily … was there any food in the bowl?

Now I just had the problem of fixing the fence so that Holly can’t get back over (for a little while at least). Of course, goats love to escape, and once they have an escape route, they will use it again, and again, and again … and again.

I had to drive in another star post and tension the fence up as well as I can with the wire being old and rusty. That really has to go.

It really did seem that a memo was sent to all ruminants to remind them that today was the day to escape.

Great Escape

It was very nice of the sheep to wait until the weekend to effect their breakout. I had just gone down to the paddock to give them a supplemental feed when I saw one of our sheep, Apricot, in the bottom paddock. When she saw me coming, she took fright and ran through the boundary fence (the boundary fence in the bottom paddock is just 5 strand wire) and into the no man’s land between us and the vineyard. Fortunately, she didn’t move much more than that.

I poured out the sheep nuts on the ground for them and Gary and Peaches started eating their feed quite happily, but Apricot wanted to get back into the paddock and get herself some of those yummy treats. The fence is obviously harder to get under from the outside, so she just stood around looking sheepish (pun intended).

Next, I rounded up the family and we did some sheepherding. We drove Apricot back through the fence and through the bottom paddock to the gate without too much trouble, and then into her own paddock.

Finally, I inspected the fence line and found where she was getting through. I had not really fixed the fence properly when I first did it. It was dark and I was in a rush. Still, it has taken the sheep 6 months to break out, so not a bad outcome.

Now to start saving for fixing the boundary fences properly. Farm fences should really be replaced every ten years or so. I have about 2km of boundary fence to replace and about 570 star posts. If I replace the posts with a timber post every third post, then that’s about 376 star posts and 193 timber posts. The timber posts will cost me about $10 each and the star posts are about $8 each. Along with that, I need fencing wire and wire mesh (I need to make the fences goat proof). So I reckon that the entire enterprise (boundaries only) is going to cost me something in the vicinity of $8,200.

While I’m at it, I also need to divide the bottom and top paddocks for goats … and new shelters in the bottom paddock. Hrumph, more costs.

Thor’s Goats

Just an interesting “Goats in History” thing. The Norse God Thor had two enormous bucks that drew his chariot. According the The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson:

“Thor has a car drawn by two goats called Tanngniost (teeth bearer or “snarler”) and Tanngrisnir (teeth gnasher or grinder). From his driving about in this car he is called Auku-Thor (Charioteer-Thor). He likewise possesses three very precious things. The first is a mallet called Mjolnir, which both the Frost and Mountain Giants know to their cost when they see it hurled against them in the air; and no wonder, for it has split many a skull of their fathers and kindred. The second rare thing he possesses is called the belt of strength or prowess (Megingjardir). When he girds it about him his divine might is doubly augmented; the third, also very precious, being his iron gauntlets, which he is obliged to put on whenever he would lay hold of the handle of his mallet. There is no one so wise as to be able to relate all Thor’s marvellous exploits, yet I could tell thee so many myself that hours would be whiled away ere all that I know had be recounted”.

When Auku-Thor was about his adventures, he would ride all day and then, at the end of the day when he would make camp. He would be filled with hunger and, consequently, he would slaughter his goats and eat them. In the morning, he would resurrect the goats so that they could pull his car again. Apart from the killing, eating and resurrection … Thor was a very responsible goat owner.

One Last Jab

Today I got another vaccine syringe to vaccinate Daphne after yesterdays debacle. Getting Daphne out of the goat field was no problem, and getting her onto the milk stand was easy and giving her the injection … no problems at all. So what was all of the problem about yesterday, I ask. Goaty troublemaking is all that I can put it down to. After injecting, I found that I had made a little lump under the skin, so the injection probably went into to right place but formed a bubble of vaccine. After rubbing this lightly, the bubble went away and no vaccine came out … jab job done.

After that, I took down the last of the electric fencing from the goat field. It wasn’t energised, so it was just forming a potential tangling danger in the field, so it had to come out. That only took a few moments.

The last job with the goats today was a weigh-in. I don’t have a set of livestock scales, so I need to use a weight estimation method where you measure the goat around the girth behind the front legs. This is a pretty easy and relatively accurate method of estimating the goats weight. I use the weight estimation table provided on-line on the Fias-Co Farm website (by the way, Fias-Co is an excellent resource for dairy goat breeders carrying loads of information on breeding and goat husbandry).

Goat	Girth	est. Weight
Holly	98 cm	71.7 kg
Minnie	81 cm	41.7 kg
Daphne	77 cm	39 kg
Darius	75 cm	36.3 kg

Last time I estimated their weights was in December 2011

Goat	Girth	est. Weight
Holly	91 cm	62.6 kg
Minnie	81 cm	45.3 kg
Daphne	51 cm	13.61 kg
Darius	48 cm	11.79 kg

So, Holly is … as has been said before, our biggest goat. Actually, she has lost a lot of weight since May, so I’m kinda glad that we didn’t weigh her earlier.

Daphne and Darius are still pretty much the same size as each other and Minnie is still a healthy sized goat, with an average weight of 61kg for an adult. She’s still only 2 years old and is still expected to grow somewhat. Holly, on the other hand, is already a big girl. Daphne and Darius have pretty much tripled their body weight in the last 8 months, so I am pretty happy with their growth and diet.

I’ll keep giving them a weigh-in every six months or so, so that I can see how they are progressing. Weight is a very good indicator for health in any animal. If they start shedding weight, and you are still feeding them the same feed … then start looking for the problem. By the same token, if an animal is putting weight on and the feed is the same, other problems may be the cause.

I’m using their weight as an indication of overall health and, for the kids, growth. The weight of Holly and Minnie is pretty consistent for each goat, so I’m not worried about worm burden. I still need to send a poo sample off to get a definitive worm count for the girls, but at the moment, they are looking pretty good. It has been cold and wet lately, so the fact that they are still able to maintain their overall weight is a good indication that their feed supply is up to the task and that their health is good.

Goat Vaccination Time

One of the great things about goat people is the level of collaboration and cooperation that exists between them. One of the people in the goat community is a breeder of Boer goats. She had bought a bottle of Glanvac 6-in-1 (which contains Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (ovis), Clostridium perfringens type D, Cl. tetani, Cl. novyi type B and Cl. septicum and a purified formol culture of Cl. chauvoei). These come in bottles of 100ml, 250ml and 500ml. These volumes are too large for most of us and we would be throwing a lot of it away. Plus, it seems that Pfizer has stopped selling Glanvac in 100ml bottles. It’s 2.5ml per goat, so I’d need 100 goats to use a bottle and it has a shelf life of 30 days after it has been opened. It makes good sense to use what you need and try to sell the rest to other goaties. The particular breeder measures out the dose into a syringe with the appropriate needle, so $3.00 per syringe makes it very easy.

The last time that I vaccinated the goats, I only had two. Holly and Minnie were both very easy to vaccinate, I had done my goat husbandry course so I was pretty confident that I could get it all done with the least hassle. Holly and Minnie had other ideas. We didn’t have a milking stand then and we did it all in the field. At one point, the needle shot off the syringe and I had to scrabble around to find the needle amongst the grass. We had to wrestle with the goats with one of us holding the goat by the collar, while the other was straddling the goat making skin tents to inject. Once the needle was in, the goats were very accommodating. After the injection, both Holly and Minnie developed subcutaneous lumps from the vaccine, so I was advised to try injecting in the skin behind the front elbow.

This time, four goats and a milking stand. Much easier … right? Well it all went pretty well until the last goat came under the needle.

First was Minnie, straight up onto the milking stand. She knew what was what. Probably, her experience being put into the milking stand for an extra feed while being milked when she had kidded made her very keen to get to the food. Make a little tent from the skin behind the elbow, jab, plunge and rub. No problems and no needle going right through squirting vaccine onto the coat. Minnie didn’t even flinch.

Darius was next. Pretty much the same as Minnie except that he didn’t like the jab.

Holly … what a champion. When the food was in front of her, I think we could have hung hot coals from her earlobes and she wouldn’t have been phased (I am NOT suggesting that this would be good goat husbandry).

Daphne was where it all came unstuck. I had put the full syringe in my jacket pocket so that I could wrangle her because she refused to get up onto the milking stand. No amount of food was getting her into the stanchion. So, I lifted her up and got her to the food bucket then put my hand into my pocket … my pocket was wet … sticky and wet. Argh! The plunger had plunged while the syringe was in my pocket.

Now I need to go back out to my friends goat stud and get another syringe for Daphne. Such fun.