Hi captyankee
To answer your question I guess it all depends on what
kinds of tools you have at your disposal. When I built
my model of the Suter I used brass, maple and
basswood. I have a machine shop in my basement so
certain parts like the hubs that the spokes fit into I
machined from brass. The spokes were made from maple
and were assembled in a jig to keep the proper
spacing. The shaft had a flat machined on it and the
hubs had stainless set screws to locate and lock them
to the shaft. The floats were made from basswood and
held to the spokes arms with brass home-made U-bolts
and nuts. If you are building for just the purpose of
functionality (working model) then some liberties can
be taken with construction but if you want to try and
keep some scale to the model I don't know how you
could get by without some type of machine tool. If you
need any more information go to the picture section
and look at the photos of my paddlewheel on the Suter.
gbritnell
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