{"id":2399,"date":"2012-10-07T21:54:26","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T02:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/?p=2399"},"modified":"2022-10-18T13:23:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T17:23:32","slug":"treadle-lathe-drivin-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/treadle-lathe-drivin-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Treadle Lathe &#8211; Drivin&#8217; It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My first &#8220;up close and personal&#8221; acquaintance with a steam <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=traction+engine&amp;hl=en&amp;client=firefox-a&amp;hs=rPo&amp;rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&amp;prmd=imvns&amp;tbm=isch&amp;tbo=u&amp;source=univ&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=ixRwUIjLEYbY0QHJj4GwDA&amp;ved=0CFUQsAQ&amp;biw=1242&amp;bih=955\">traction engine<\/a> was several(?) decades ago at an Antique Tractor show in Portland Indiana. More recently, I watched a 1913 Case engine drive a threshing machine at the Dakota County (Minnesota) fair late this summer. When these engines drive threshing machines or saw mills, power transfer is by use of a very wide and tremendously long fabric belts. I once asked an engine operator about how taut to make the belt. He advised, &#8220;only taut enough to keep it from slipping. Any tighter stresses axles and bearings.&#8221; The following video (not mine) shows an engine driving a threshing machine.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"HD-Steam Traction Engine Running a Threshing\/Seperator\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qOxGah1imrY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/belted.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2405 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/belted-383x510.jpg\" alt=\"photo of drive belt mounted and ready to use\" width=\"383\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/belted-383x510.jpg 383w, https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/belted-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/belted.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 383px) 100vw, 383px\" \/><\/a>Wander around and look at shopmade wooden treadle lathes. You&#8217;ll find all manner of drive &#8220;belts.&#8221; Many use rope or leather cords. In doing my research, I saw a lot of lathes where the builder used extra idlers to add tension, usually to cords or ropes. Those look like very fussy contraptions.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of using a narrow cord or rope, I decided to model my drive after the traction engines, with a wide leather belt. My intent was to eliminate the need for a fussy tension idler and to keep tautness to something less than a gnat&#8217;s ass stretched over a rain barrel. My drive belt is 2&#8243; wide material from Tandy. The longest belting strips they offer are 72&#8243; long. It takes the better part of two lengths to make this belt.<\/p>\n<p>I made it long enough to be a snug, but not particularly taut, fit over the flywheel and temporary spindle pulley. It doesn&#8217;t slip, and the rounded shape of the spindle pulley sure keeps it on track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My first &#8220;up close and personal&#8221; acquaintance with a steam traction engine was several(?) decades ago at an Antique Tractor show in Portland Indiana. More recently, I watched a 1913 Case engine drive a threshing machine at the Dakota County (Minnesota) fair late this summer. When these engines drive threshing machines or saw mills, power [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-shopmade","7":"category-treadle-lathe","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8614,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions\/8614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}