A few days ago it jumped back into my head that I would love to learn how to use a wood lathe. I have seen plenty of examples of great craftsmanship using these tools and the principal is infinitely simple (yet the mastering of the technique I’m told takes almost more than a lifetime). So I’m considering taking a dive into it along with all the other junk going on. Considering that I don’t have a lot of money I’m weary about shelling out hundreds (if not thousands) for a new tool.
So I searched around a bit and found a couple of examples of home made jobs. What really interested me where the manual powered ones. Most, like this example, had a large fly wheel attached to a foot powered board at the bottom. The idea is that they would get the momentum built up in the wheel so that the craftsman could work without exerting much force. Freakin’ great, right?
So, now that begs the question for me: What about other tools? (My wife, the environmentalist, will love this part.) When it comes to large bench or floor type power tools, what do they all have in common (other than a motor)? Answer: They hall use some sort of spinning action to create the motion need to make the cut(s) or mill work.
Therefore, can’t we apply this same technique from the manual lathe to almost any power tool? I can imagine the table saw or even a planer/sander being fairly easy to rig for this sort of thing considering the spinning action goes perpendicular to the ground. Just build a frame to support the wheel and you could belt drive to your tool. What I want to figure out, though, would be doing a drill press.
With a drill press, the spinning action is parallel to the ground rather than perpendicular. Because of that, either we would need a fly wheel situated in the same manner or some gearing system (easily enough done with modern techniques) to angle the motion. Another issue that would present itself with this would be the reversing the motion of the chuck. Without really doing a lot of studying of the design for the lathe I’m assuming that it is set up to be best used working in one particular direction. So, a gear box would work for that as well, but one could also attempt to simply reverse the belt drive (flip the belt on one pulley) to solve that problem.
At this point I feel like I’m rambling on about this. However, I would love to give this a try with a few tool examples. Heck, I bet if I look around hard enough I will find where someone else thought of it first. Still, if my wife’s predictions of peak oil come true, then having a man powered way of completing wood projects is available it might keep a few woodworkers in a job.
~DB
-- Happy Ripping!!!
15 comments so far
HallTree
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563 posts in 219 days
posted 179 days ago
It seems to me that many years ago I saw some plans on how to make a lathe like this in a copy of an old ‘Fine Woodworking’ magazine. Maybe someone out there can dig the magazine up. Or there might be a web site out there that you could check on. By the way, sounds like your wife is really supportive of your woodworking. Maybe you could get her to operate the foot powered fllywheel while you operate the lathe or another tool in the shop. Then it would be a joint effort of ‘man power and woman power’. Just kidding.
-- Ron in Osseo, Minnesota
GaryK
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8411 posts in 440 days
posted 179 days ago
It’s usually called a treadle lathe, and you can find all kinds of information on them on Google.
Here is a free plan: http://www.manytracks.com/lathe/
Good luck.
-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.
DannyBoy
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211 posts in 317 days
posted 179 days ago
Wow! That is a great link. Thanks, Gary!
-- Happy Ripping!!!
aaronmolloy
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95 posts in 232 days
posted 179 days ago
Good woodworking on the lathe is fun check out the stuff i made
-- A. Molloy
Mario
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697 posts in 503 days
posted 179 days ago
If you want to go all out look into the old water powered shops that used a paddle wheel on a small river and the shaft of the wheel had belts that ran all of the tools. There are some still around and it might be fun to look into something like that.
It would be fun to find one and rebuild it but wold be very expensive and time consuming.
-- Hope Never fails
jockmike2
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4054 posts in 698 days
posted 179 days ago
No matter how you go treadle or a new jet you’re right turning is fun and you are only limited by your imagination. Good luck. mike
-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com
Russel
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1214 posts in 391 days
posted 179 days ago
You want hand tools, check this out: The Woodwright’s Shop on PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wws/schedule/26season_video.html
-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.
Dadoo
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1511 posts in 442 days
posted 179 days ago
I wanted to suggest The Woodwrights Shop as well. In his videos, he demonstrates all the old tools…all of them human powered. Google “Bow Lathe” for yet another version. There’s also a Treadle lathe that uses a bow.
He also did a tour of a water powered mill/woodshop not too far from here in NY. All those tools (saws, gangsaws, lathes, drill, mills, etc.) were powered by (quickly) slipping a large leather belt over an even larger, spinning pulley, then jumping clear so as not to become “one with the machine”, all the while remembering that there are 50 more spinning, lashing, grinding, tearing, man eating pulleys and belts everywhere! This is definately why OSHA was formed! There were exposed blades, bits, saws and pinch points everywhere! Truely an excellent show!
Even better, I found the show! Click on Russel’s link and go to show #2612.
-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!
Russel
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1214 posts in 391 days
posted 179 days ago
It’s a great show and thanks to Tivo I get to watch him regularly. It is worth remembering the ingenuity and learning the skills of those pre-electric woodworkers.
-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.
Dan Lyke
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363 posts in 577 days
posted 179 days ago
Treadle direction is easily reversed (just depends on what direction you spin it when you first start kicking it), so you don’t have to worry about gearing for that. For the drill press problem, you can either use a belt or bevel gears to get your 90°, albeit with some loss of efficiency, or you could set up a way to hold your workpieces on edge and use your bit horizontally. In fact, it might be easier to clamp your workpiece to some sort of moveable dolly and keep the bit stationary, rather than moving the bit as you do in a traditional drill press.
As others have pointed out, there are lots of resources for how woodworking was done and furniture was made before electricity, and a lot of gorgeous furniture came out of those eras, but I’m an unrepentant power tool user…
-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke
Pretzel
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95 posts in 197 days
posted 179 days ago
Goggle treadle saw they also have a universal woodworker listed
-- Pretzel L8agn
mjlauro
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190 posts in 213 days
posted 179 days ago
I also would like to build a lathe like this also, to use outdoors during nice weather.
Peter O
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628 posts in 326 days
posted 179 days ago
I’ve seen some treadle scroll saws … I’d love to have a cabin in the mountains full of manual powered tools.
-- Coffee is best with a fine layer of sawdust on top. -- http://www.north40custom.com
cajunpen
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5352 posts in 517 days
posted 179 days ago
Several years ago – in Dollywood – I had the pleasure of watching a craftsman turning spindles on a treadle lathe. He was far more proficient that I am on my fancy Nova lathe. It’s not what you use for equipment, it’s the knowledge that you have to use the tool. So that treadle lathe may be all you need – go for it.
-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/
Dick Cain
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4838 posts in 751 days
posted 178 days ago
I hate to throw sand in your gears, but you could make yourself an electric powered lathe.
This one may not cost you any more than the treadle lathe.
But with his type of lathe, you wouldn’t get much exercise. ;o)
-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1