Pedal powered lathe?

[sbwertz]

My brother has really got into turning in the last couple of years. I made the mistake of letting him turn a pen when he came to visit, and he got bit by the bug. He has been selling his stuff at craft fairs and at the Renaissance Festival. In order to do a demo at the festival, he would need a man-powered lathe. Anyone know where one might be for sale, or the plans to build one?

 

[Robert Taylor]

The Buckeye Woodturners are building two as we speak. The Club plans to keep one for demos and sell the others. The ones we are building are from an issue of Fine Woodworking sometime in 1979. The plans are out in the garage. If interested I'll get more info later. This is basically the 1979 machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSoy6lhCb5U

 

[RileyD]

The phrase you want to google for is "Spring Pole Lathe"

 

[MRDucks2]

Agre d, the spring pole lathe would led be more typical for the period, I believe, and more simple to build.


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[m4skinner]

The Buckeye Woodturners are building two as we speak. The Club plans to keep one for demos and sell the others. The ones we are building are from an issue of Fine Woodworking sometime in 1979. The plans are out in the garage. If interested I'll get more info later. This is basically the 1979 machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSoy6lhCb5U

I seen pics of the ones you guys are building, it looks really nice.

 

[Robert Taylor]

A spring pole large would indeed be peddle powered. I have attempted to turn on a spring pole large and don't believe that I could turn a pen on one.

 

[dogcatcher]

Look at this one. http://www.theunpluggedwoodshop.com/cme-handworks-inc.html
If you go this route, I would recommend using a 5/8" steel rod for the spindle shaft. That way he could use Shopsmith adapters and be able to use chucks along with real spur drives and live centers.

Here is another one, this one has the build in his blog. https://trialanderrorwoodworker.wordpress.com/category/workshop/treadle-lathe/

 

[Robert Taylor]

Thanks for the compliment Tom. I have built the center hub and turned the spokes. There are fourteen Club members making parts. The current thought is to sell tickets and have a drawing at the Paul Bunyan Festival. dogcatcher that is pretty much the same lathe from Fine Woodworking. We used a one inch shaft and threaded it for a chuck. The tailstock incorporates a quilt from a Nova Comet large.

 

[Robert Taylor]

Treadle Lathe

A couple pictures. The Gentleman turning the flywheel in the last picture had his ninety-first birthday yesterday.

 

[Wildman]

Not a big fan of turning at a shows or craft fairs, JMHO. Have seen folks turning on their mini lathe not sure led to many sales. Did draw a crowd though, plenty of questions and conversations. Know they paid little extra for electricity.

Many years ago a turning club at a week end craft fair brang a lathe and turned toy tops and gave them to kids for free. Once they ran out of wood and stopped turning free tops crowds dindled on both days. Sales were flat but members had a good time. Think couple men and women attended a meeting but did not join the club. Was told they are lucky to get one or two new members a year that way. They do sell enough to meet expenses plus little extra doing two demo's a year there.

Enjoyed this foot lathe without treadle video after watching the earlier video linked. There are many more homemade lathe videos on You Tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XOK2EcxTG4

Might be fun building a lathe to take to shows so go for it!

 

[dogcatcher]

We used a one inch shaft and threaded it for a chuck. The tailstock incorporates a quilt from a Nova Comet large.

I used a 5/8 shaft, I had a friend that had a junker Shopsmith, he donated his accesories to my project. A few years later I donated them back, with the pedal lathe. It wasn't a copy of the above links, mine had a 4" swing and was 12" between centers. It was made for demoing duck calls. I also had a "cheater" 1/4hp motor that could be added if I chose to use power instead of pedaling.

 

[TellicoTurning]

Agree with Bill, I tried to take my lathe to a craft show one time... first off, my mini Jet sits on a permanent wood stand that has a box of rocks at the bottom for stability.. runs the weight up to about 200 lbs... at the show they put me at one end of the tent... the show was in one big tent for all the vendors... the wind was blowing into the tent from my end, so any chips or dust I made would blow into the tent... my neighbor was a jewelry vendor and had really nice black velvet displays for her jewelry... then the promoter had only intermittent power to me... I didn't turn because of the lack of consistent power and the struggle to take the lathe out of the shop, load into my truck, unload at the show, reload at the show -- it ain't worth it.

 

[sbwertz]

I don't think he was planning to make anything to sell on the retro lathe....just show one in action as part of the festival just for fun.

 

[sbwertz]

A couple pictures. The Gentleman turning the flywheel in the last picture had his ninety-first birthday yesterday.

DANG! Hope I look that good at 91!