Despite Andre’s concerns, it actually works.
For those who didn’t follow the link to André’s comments, he said:
Nice work on the original structure.
But I fear that the treadle lathe is not going to work. The large drive wheel is not heavy enough to have enough strength to get on the rotation axis. The large drive wheel must weigh 35kg minimum for easy turning.
This weight is for a wheel diameter of 600mm.
Myself early this year a treadle lathe built, pictures can be found here: http://hout-en-boten.blogspot.com
My original one word comment was “sweet”. I couldn’t post that because it was too short.
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!
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.
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.
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…