doozer wrote:
Hi folks,

My latest project is to build a foot powered wood working lathe but there
are a few points that I am having trouble with design wise and I would
appreciate some advice.

I'm fairly good at working wood but I have very little experience working
metal. There is, unfortunatly for me, two bits of the lathe that I think
have to be fabricated in metal - the treadle mechanism and the head / tail
stock.

I think I can probably muddle my way through a design for the head / tail
stock (I was thinking of using a drill chuck or something similar) but the
treadle mechanism has me stumped.

The current plan was to have something like this (excuse the bad art)

--B----| |--
--B----| |--
|A|
| |
-|D|-----| |--
-|D|-----| |--
| | | |
|C|
| |
Z Z
| |
--E---------------F------
------------------F------

That's a terrible drawing sorry )

A = Crank ~5cm
B = Flywheel Axle
C = Other Crank Bit ~30cm (Sorry don't know the correct names)
D = Bearing (I hope)
E = Another Bearing
F = Treadle Plate (it's pivotted BTW)
Z = Shows this bar is much longer than A

Can you buy this sort of set up? If so where as google has let me down. If
not how would you go about producing this? I have considered butchering a
couple of bicycle pedles but that feels like a really bad solution.

Many Thanks,

Graham


one last suggestion:
any (dead or unpowered) motor or (LP) turntable would do as a
tailstock. Just file a point on the shaft/spindle.

A tail stock with more grip could be made a bit like gripper rod: lots
of very short pointy bits for multiple gripping. Just knock the
tailstock into the workpiece.

Its hard to know exactly what you want. I've used a wood lathe but
there's so much scope for variation. Pole lathe, drill, all the way
upto something more like an industrial metal lathe. Even cutting tools
bring more options. And of course what you plan to make will determine
best choice of head & tail.

One question: why manual power rather than drill?


NT