An 18th.C. treadle lathe I made

[george wilson]

I posted a picture of this in the "flux" thread. But it is sort of hidden there,so I'm putting it out where it can be seen. I don't understand this new picture posting method here. When I push the "upload" button,it doesn't change color,or seem to respond to being pushed. I was only able to get one picture to post before. I'll try again here.

P.S.: O.K.,better luck this time.

This is really a metal lathe copied from an original in the Science Museum in London. It was made for the Gunsmith's Shop in Colonial Williamsburg while I was toolmaker there. When that shop moved to the Geddy Foundry site,they already had a lathe there,and no space for this one. So,it is now in the Cabinet Shop.

The flywheel is 24" in Dia.,and 5" thick. That gives it enough oomph to take cuts from metal (small parts!) The blacksmith's shop made rough forgings,and I finished them,turning threads on the spindle,threading the various parts,etc.

The stepped pulleys are ONLY to tighten the ever stretching belt,not to change speeds. You treadle faster to do that.

The front end of the spindle is tapered,and runs through a tapered hole in a 1/2" plate of tool steel. That must be kept lubed. There is no spindle hole. The rear end of the spindle has a hardened point on it,running against an adjustment bolt.

I actually made several attachments for this lathe,like a cat head chuck,face plate,pitch chuck,and forked center. Those stayed with the other lathe. It had the same 1" x8 thd. nose.

There is a picture of the cat head chuck. It is a dangerous item!! Those bolts center up the work by eye,but stick out like cat's whiskers to bark your knuckles pretty badly! The cat head chuck is the early equivalent of a 4 jaw chuck. They had no 3 jaw. Their metal was rolled so crudely,it was not practical to put it into a 3 jaw self centering chuck anyway.

There is an ivory handled folding knife seen there,too. Nothing to do with the lathe. Just an early type knife I made for a customer. About 4"long,closed. Half ram nut to tighten the blade open or closed. Too bad this picture won't enlarge.

The pitch chuck is a cast iron bowl filled with pitch. It screws onto the spindle. You can heat it up and press really odd shaped parts into it. Then,put it onto the lathe,and nudge the part till it runs true. Then,when the pitch cools,it holds well enough to allow careful turning on whatever part you made to run true. Mostly for things like candle stick bases. A pretty handy thing,actually. It can hold things you can't hold any other way.

The lathe is about 12" swing,24" between centers,IF I recall correctly. Been quite a few years.

IF YOU ENJOY THESE PICTURES,please comment. When I see 215 views,and 2 replies,I think I may be wasting my time posting. Thank you.

 

[Starlight Tools]

Awesome!

It is amazing what was done in the past years and how it has evolved over the years to what we have today.

Walter

 

[Old Iron]

Pretty cool Lathe just about my speed. I wished the one of the chuck and knife would have enlarged I'd like a better look at those.

Paul

 

[rock_breaker]

Thanks for sharing !!!!

Can only repeat what others have said about how people developed machines down through the ages.

I am also interested in the type of wood you used in this neat project.

 

[george wilson]

The lathe is made from red oak. I can't recall when it was made. About 1999,I think.

 

[Tony Wells]

I always enjoy seeing old technology, and pondering on the awe it must have inspired in the common folk of the time. Looking back, we all say "I would have thought of that, or come up with something better", but at the time, that was top shelf, and not everyone had one. That's one reason I always enjoy watching Roy Underhill and all his old tech ideas. My wife doesn't understand. I have lots of power tools, but would love to build something using nothing but old methods and tools. I only have two planes, and both are all metal. I would love to start a collection of special planes, but that's for when I fully retire, I suppose.

Thanks very much for sharing, George!

 

[nctoxic]

George,
That is a great project idea. I've always been fascinated by the old tools as Tony said. What kind of rpms could one maintain while "pedalling" that thing?

Tim,,,

 

[george wilson]

I never bothered to think about RPM,just whether or not the tool was cutting. I know some lathes run much faster than others. The lighter flywheel ones will run faster,but are usually wood lathes.

I'm thinking a max of about 500 RPM for this one. It has plain bearings,of course. And,that pointed spindle adjuster at the rear of the spindle isn't the best thing for high speed running. Too fast and too dry,and it could friction weld itself to the spindle.

 

[Hawkeye]

That's pretty cool. Glad to see some of the old ingenuity is not being lost. It's important to trace some of the thought processes that led us to what we have now.

 

[george wilson]

I posted this because there seems to be a great number of people(especially wood workers) who want to build treadle lathes. There is also a big following for hand cranked grinders(the 6" wheel type). I HATED those things when I was a kid!!!!

I use plenty of hand tools due to the nature of my work,but I don't go looking for trouble! If people were blessed with a water wheel powered lathe before electric motors,I'm sure they were VERY fortunate,indeed!