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Treadle Lathe – Show-n-Tell 2

Despite André’s concerns, it actually works.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2012 at 4:38 pm and is filed under treadle lathe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Treadle Lathe – Show-n-Tell 2”

  1. ralph boumenot Says:

    My original one word comment was “sweet”. I couldn’t post that because it was too short.

    October 30th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
  2. Shannon Says:

    I’m glad to see that wider diameter piece as an example as it seems that is where the belt would start to slip without the idler pully to provide more tension. I am surprised and it looks like I just saved myself from making the idler. It is easy enough to add one later if the belt stretches or the pully becomes slippery in the future from wear. Great stuff Bob and you practice pieces look great!

    November 1st, 2012 at 11:12 am
  3. Bob Says:

    Ralph, THANKS!
    FWIW – WordPress needs 3 words for a legit comment, one way to reduce comment spam. That, and other great filters mean we don’t need any freaking CAPTCHAs. :-)

    Shannon,
    I was thinking of you when I demonstrated that heavier piece. The belt is not overly taut. It can be squeezed all the way into the frame with no stress. Other than the width, another reason it works so well is that the inside of the belt is not finished smooth. It’s a bit rough, grippy, and I left the wheels rough too. BTW, Tandy sells their belt leather in two grades, unfinished and finished. One would think the finished more expensive, but that was not the case when I bought this belt material. The finished stuff was on sale for about 10% less less than the unfinished. It’s also thick enough that it’s not stretching.

    November 1st, 2012 at 11:36 am
  4. Joe Cunningham Says:

    Sweet, that lathe is running nice. I like my spring pole ok, but having a constant turning would make things easier. One thing I noticed is that my tools need to be a lot sharper with the foot powered lathe than the tailed kind. I can get away with coming off the grinder on my shopsmith, but for potato-power, I go to the my stones.

    The skew is a challenge on the spring-pole whereas on a powered lathe, it is one of my favorite tools.

    November 30th, 2012 at 2:04 pm
  5. Bob Says:

    How right you are Joe!!!

    I’m just now getting some new tools honed enough to work well. It’s amazing how well brute power can make up for dullness. :-)

    Hear ya on the skew. When we’re bouncing around pumping a lathe, the skew moves a lot more than when used on a dead steady power lathe.

    Watching for your next post about using your lathe…

    November 30th, 2012 at 2:13 pm

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