Miniature wagon wheel starts big hobby

Posted 7/19/17

Once it was finished, he looked at the wooden-spoked wheel. “I figured, ‘Well, I better build a wagon to go with that wheel,’” he said.

That started what has since become a passion for Lee: making and selling miniature, detailed replicas …

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Miniature wagon wheel starts big hobby

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After getting a new drill press, Scott Lee of Powell decided to put it to the test by making a miniature wagon wheel.

Once it was finished, he looked at the wooden-spoked wheel. “I figured, ‘Well, I better build a wagon to go with that wheel,’” he said.

That started what has since become a passion for Lee: making and selling miniature, detailed replicas of horse-drawn wagons. He started in 2010 with a buckboard and later progressed to several others, such as covered wagons, a sheepherders’ wagons, a hearse, war wagons and chuckwagons.

Making wagons was his first serious attempt at woodworking, said Lee, who worked as a computer engineer in Colorado and Texas before retiring.

“When I got tired of the rat race, I just decided to drop out of civilization, if you will,” he said. A native of Laramie, Lee decided to move to Powell, a place he had grown to like when visiting his grandfather in Cody.

“Not many people really like where they live,” he said. “I’m really blessed.”

Though only about a foot or 18 inches long, each wagon is historically accurate, down to the smallest details.

“Every piece on all of these is handmade,” he said.

Some wagons have seats on top, some in front, some inside. Some wagon roofs are flat, some are sloped in front, some slope toward the back and others are evenly curved over the center.

A hearse he made has windows; a wooden coffin lies inside. Hearse wagon designs vary significantly from model to model, Lee said.

A snake-oil sales wagon is complete with shelving on the back and a printed advertisement on the side detailing the supposed healing properties of the oil. Mountain West Printing in Cody did the screen printing, taking the time to get the details correct and make sure the ink viscosity was right, Lee said.  

A prison wagon has bars on the windows and “U.S. Marshal,” and “Wyoming Territory” printed in gold-stamped lettering. Marquis Awards in Powell got the printing just right, he said.

A chuckwagon has a cupboard in back, complete with cooking equipment, a sack of sugar and other food supplies.

A sheepherder’s wagon has the traditional rounded, canvas-covered top; a wood-burning stove, shelving and benches inside; a stovepipe in front and a box on the side for storage.

A buckboard has a miniature rifle inside a sleeve mounted beside the driver’s seat — and brakes that really work. When pushed forward, a brake lever beside the seat pulls wooden brakes against the rear wagon wheels.

It’s a fairly complicated system.

“Every time I make one, I have to figure out how to do the brakes again,” he said.

A freight wagon also has brakes, along with weathered and beaten sideboards.

A war wagon — basically an early, horse-drawn version of a tank — is covered with aluminium and has a rotating turret on top, where a gatling gun would be mounted. Small nails resemble the bolts that held the wagon together.

The war wagon is the most time intensive to make. Lee estimates it takes him 200 hours.

A hearse takes about 100 hours; most others take about 50 hours, he said.

To make sure he gets the details right, Lee models his wagons from the real things. Some, such as the hearse, he photographs in museums. Others, he’s seen in pictures. Occasionally, he finds one in a Western movie on television. He pauses the show repeatedly in order to take pictures of the wagon as it is shown from different angles.

When he constructs the wagon, each detail must be correct. When he becomes frustrated, he puts it aside rather than making mistakes. Later, he can come back with more patience and new ideas, he said.

To make the wagon wheels, Lee cuts the rims from 1-inch wood using large hole saws, then he drills eight precisely-spaced holes for the wooden spokes. To drill the holes correctly, he used to wrap a template with evenly spaced holes around the wheels. Later, he came up with a device that he clamps on the outside of the wheels, then attaches to the drill press. It has a latch that stops at precise intervals, indicating where he should drill the holes for the spokes.

Lee said he’s still not sure what prompted him to make that first wagon wheel.

“My grandpa drove stage from Cody to Old Faithful to Cooke City [Montana] and back for the Yellowstone Stage Company,” he said. “I’ve heard those tales all of my life — some of them might have been true — but I don’t think that’s what got me on it.”

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