Old lathe questions

[Joe Grittani]

Hi -

I'm involved in restoring a historic site in southwestern Ohio and we turned up an old lathe on site. I'm seriously into hand tools but know absolutely nothing about turning or lathes. We're considering the possibility of
re-creating a woodshop on site in the future. The lathe is still in the same condition as photographed so there could be hidden info in the castings but there's nothing clearly visible. We have no idea if it's a manufactured piece or something home grown. I'm assuming that the frame below the bench top might be a treadle, but I'm not even sure of that or what did, in fact, power this thing. I'd greatly appreciate any insights or information that anyone could provide.

Joe Grits, Dayton, Ohiohttp://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/misc/paperclip.png Attached Thumbnailshttp://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242046&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1349023753 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242046&d=1349027692) http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242047&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1349023752 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242047&d=1349027695) http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242048&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1349023751 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242048&d=1349027697) http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242049&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1349023751 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242049&d=1349027700) http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242050&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1349023750 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242050&d=1349027703)

[Olaf Vogel]

To me, it looks like a post & beam lathe, but not mounted on the original bed. It would have been powered by a line-shaft overhead.
However....the headstock design is unusual in that normally there would be room for wooden cone pulley with 3 to 4 steps. That wooden piece might have been turned down. The pics are kinda small to tell

Take a look on here: http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/bytype.aspx
to see if there's something similar.

If not, the guys on the sister site http://www.owwm.org/viewforum.php?f=1 are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about unusual gear.

Looks interesting.

[Robert Champagne]

You could be right about the treadle. If so, there might have been a spring mounted above the lathe, with a string running between the spring and the treadle, and wrapped around the wooden pulley (hence the groove apparently worn into it). By pushing down on the treadle, you would spin the pulley. At the end of the downward travel, you would release the treadle, and the spring would pull up on the string, returning the treadle to the upright position in a reciprocating motion. This is one way lathes were driven before electricity and line shafting. Often the "spring" was a green sapling nailed to the ceiling that would provide sufficient tension. Peter Follansbee over at Plymouth Plantation uses one of these for reproduction 17th century turnings. Google him or Spring Pole Lathe to see if yours is similar. Olaf is right in that later machines were typically run with line shafts, and on a line shaft machine, you would typically find a stepped wooden pulley in the headstock. But from the apparent treadle and the flat pulley with a groove worn into it, I am guessing it was set up as a pole lathe. It looks to be pretty old, possibly built by a blacksmith, maybe 1850?? Hard to guess from the photos, though. I agree, interesting piece.