Jeff Wittrock
12-27-2007, 4:38 PM
Hello All,
I am becoming interested in making a treadle lathe. I am gathering some on line information from a number of sources to get some idea of what is involved.
I am just wondering if any of you have made your own lathe, and if so, if there are some tips you could give. Just looking for some general info in addition to what I may find on line. Maybe if someone has some links that they found useful in building their own, that would be real helpful.
My space is pretty limited, so I'm just wondering how practical it is to build a treadle lathe with a reduced size flywheel (is that the right term?). Like maybe increasing the mass of the flywheel would let me reduce its diameter a bit?
My 7 year old son has an interest in using the lathe, and I would really like to make something my he can use as well (with supervision). My first impression is that a treadle lathe may be safer for him to use than a motorized one, although that may be a bad assumption. Maybe someone can comment on that as well? Making something that we can both use may just be impractical. I can imagine that having to foot power the lathe while learning to hold the tools is more difficult than learning on a motorized lathe (I had a hard time leaning on a motorized one:o).
This should probably go in the turners forum, but a guess a treadle lathe is a bit Neanderthalish. Human powered anyway.
Thanks,
-Jeff
I am becoming interested in making a treadle lathe. I am gathering some on line information from a number of sources to get some idea of what is involved.
I am just wondering if any of you have made your own lathe, and if so, if there are some tips you could give. Just looking for some general info in addition to what I may find on line. Maybe if someone has some links that they found useful in building their own, that would be real helpful.
My space is pretty limited, so I'm just wondering how practical it is to build a treadle lathe with a reduced size flywheel (is that the right term?). Like maybe increasing the mass of the flywheel would let me reduce its diameter a bit?
My 7 year old son has an interest in using the lathe, and I would really like to make something my he can use as well (with supervision). My first impression is that a treadle lathe may be safer for him to use than a motorized one, although that may be a bad assumption. Maybe someone can comment on that as well? Making something that we can both use may just be impractical. I can imagine that having to foot power the lathe while learning to hold the tools is more difficult than learning on a motorized lathe (I had a hard time leaning on a motorized one:o).
This should probably go in the turners forum, but a guess a treadle lathe is a bit Neanderthalish. Human powered anyway.
Thanks,
-Jeff