Lathe build questions

[Mike Olson]

I'm in the process of starting a Treadle lathe build and have a starter question.

What's the optimal distance from the bed of the lathe to the center of the um center chuck thingy.

Thanks,
Mike

[Michael James]

Mike, I've seen a couple of youtube type videos with guys using these, and would guess that a googling of the key words would yield you at least another direction to go in. There may be people right here that know, but Im new and haven't seen any related threads.
Just a thought.
mj

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I'm in the process of starting a Treadle lathe build and have a starter question.

What's the optimal distance from the bed of the lathe to the center of the um center chuck thingy.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike I don't think there's such a thing as an optimal distance from the bed to the center, which makes the swing of the lathe, (the size you could turn on the lathe).

There's this thing, you can turn small pieces on a large lathe but not large pieces on a small lathe, though your personal power (I assume) is limiting the size of turnings you can make ;) :D

Though if you use a large or heavy flywheel you could increase some of the sizes you could turn, still, making a 12" bowl would be large I think, so for that your center of the spindle would be 6" above the lathe bed, HTH :cool: :)

Hope you keep us informed of the building of your lathe, we are interested, and it could be helpful for the next person that might want to build a Treadle lathe :) :)

[Dennis Ford]

I agree with Leo that a 12" dia bowl would be large for a treadle lathe. Unless you are unusually athletic, a bowl that size could a challange. However a plate that size seems reasonable. I would make the spindle compatible with readily available accessories, probably 1" - 8tpi. One nice thing about making your own is that you can make it whatever size you choose.
Making a treadle lathe is on my bucket list, I would love to see some pictures or sketches of yours.

[John Keeton]

Here are some past threads that may offer some general help in your quest -
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=72308

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=27397

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=27397

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=98884

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=140973

In particular, in the last link above, I notice that George Wilson comments on the treadle lathe he made at Williamsburg. George is a true artist and an accomplished individual with decades of experience at Williamsburg. He would be a tremendous source for you, and glad to help I suspect.

[Mike Olson]

Thanks for the info. i guess I'll go with 6"

John, thanks for the links, i had seen all of those already and have done a LOT of research but no one has posted specifications, just general descriptions.

What I am working on is more of a FrankinLathe. I am trying to build it with just what I have in spare parts around.

Bed is going to be 2 - 5' HF bar clamps, clamped to my 4' workbench. the backs of the bar clamps are almost the exact size and shape of a T track so I'm going to be holding all the other parts down to the bed with T-Bolts.
I have a really old bench-top drill press that is probably from the 40's which I have never used. I plan on using most of those guts for the Head.

As for the flywheel, i'm going to build a wooden axle and attach 4 or 6 spokes to it. I'm then going to build a frame around that and pour Concrete for the outer ring. I'm going to attach a rope to the inside of the form to make the groove that the belt/rope will travel in. I'm also going to mount some bolts to the inside of the rim between the spokes to be able to mount some counterweights on afterwards to help with any balancing that's needed.

[Jerry Marcantel]

Mike, I get sales alerts from Eagle America, and today one of their featured items is a book by Ernie Conover called The Frugal Turner?. There's a like for a book preview, and to my surprise, there's a section on building a lathe you're asking about... Pretty good detail. There's the link...... Jerry (in Tucson) http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/407-4345?s=EMAIL&r=EML100717&p=E2100714&lm=eagl (http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/407-4345?s=EMAIL&r=EML100717&p=E2100714&lm=eagl).....

[Andrew Kertesz]

There is a gentleman here at the local Woodcraft in Toledo that built the Roy Underhill spring pole lathe. It and the operator turn out some nice pieces. It is amazing what can be accomplished without power. He uses no power tools at all for any of his furniture.

[Mike Olson]

Mike, I get sales alerts from Eagle America, and today one of their featured items is a book by Ernie Conover called The Frugal Turner?. There's a like for a book preview, and to my surprise, there's a section on building a lathe you're asking about... Pretty good detail. There's the link...... Jerry (in Tucson) http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/407-4345?s=EMAIL&r=EML100717&p=E2100714&lm=eagl (http://www.eagleamerica.com/product/407-4345?s=EMAIL&r=EML100717&p=E2100714&lm=eagl).....


Excellent, thank you for that link. Page 22 and 23 gives me some great info.

Thanks
Mike

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Excellent, thank you for that link. Page 22 and 23 gives me some great info.

Thanks
Mike

Mike I have thought about the way most of these lathes that I have seen and in pictures about them, are build, and decided that if I ever was to build one, I would try to make the flywheel able to be coupled-uncoupled, so you would not have to take the energy stored out of it every time you wanted to stop the lathe for whatever reason (look, adjust toolrest etc.) and the need to get it up to speed again, I think that would be a very worthwhile addition to it :)

[Mike Olson]

I have been thinking the same thing, using the rear wheel of a bicycle and encasing the outer frame of the wheel in the cement to give it weight.

My only concern is that you wouldn't be able to go in reverse for sanding, I'm thinking with the low speed i'll need to do lots of sanding.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I have been thinking the same thing, using the rear wheel of a bicycle and encasing the outer frame of the wheel in the cement to give it weight.

My only concern is that you wouldn't be able to go in reverse for sanding, I'm thinking with the low speed i'll need to do lots of sanding.

Mike a freewheeling hub would still have you stop the wheel to stop the lathe, you just would not have to keep on pedaling and have the lathe keep on spinning.
What I'm talking about is actually disconnecting the "engine" from the lathe spindle.
Just like you can keep the engine of your car running while the car is stopped, a male tapered cone that slide into a female cone on a splined headstock spindle could be used by just moving the cone into or out of the other cone :)

[Greg Ketell]

My only concern is that you wouldn't be able to go in reverse for sanding, I'm thinking with the low speed i'll need to do lots of sanding.

If you have your "drive mechanism" turning the flywheel and the flywheel driving the spindle via a movable "pressure wheel" (so you can disconnect the flywheel to stop the spindle without losing the momentum of the flywheel), then you could create a "double wheel pressure wheel" setup that would then be used to drive the lathe in reverse.

Heck, you could get really fancy and have different sizes of pressure wheels which would make your lathe a variable speed lathe and you could change speeds without stopping the flywheel.

Wheeee. Fun project.

[Ryan Baker]

That all reminds me of the old belt driven mill machinery. They would use an idler pulley in the middle, with forward and reverse drive pulleys on either side. The drive belt could be easily shifted between them to switch from forward to idle to reverse, etc. It probably wouldn't be too hard to rig up something similar for a treadle lathe.

Del Stubbs used to show off the "drive clutch" he used on his lathes. He had a foot pedal arrangement that just released the tension on the drive belt so that the belt would slip (not really a design I like much with a motor, but might be workable with a treadle lathe).

[Leo Van Der Loo]

That all reminds me of the old belt driven mill machinery. They would use an idler pulley in the middle, with forward and reverse drive pulleys on either side. The drive belt could be easily shifted between them to switch from forward to idle to reverse, etc. It probably wouldn't be too hard to rig up something similar for a treadle lathe.

Del Stubbs used to show off the "drive clutch" he used on his lathes. He had a foot pedal arrangement that just released the tension on the drive belt so that the belt would slip (not really a design I like much with a motor, but might be workable with a treadle lathe).

The old belt drives used two belts, one on either side of the driven pulley, where the belt that was used for reverse drive was twisted 180 degrees, ( the top was twisted to the bottom) so even when these two belts were driven from the same shaft, the twist would make the pulley turn backwards at the other end.

Then the handle and rod that moved the belts had 2 forks, (one for each belt) moving the belts over to one side one belt would be driving the driven pulley, slide the belts over the other way the driven pulley would then turn in reverse direction, and in order to be able to slide the belts over, the idler pulleys were at least twice as wide as the driven pulley :)