On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 22:38:30 +0000, Andy Dingley wrote:

I'd love to have a go with a Great Wheel lathe (an apprentice cranks the
handle)

Could be fun -- at that end.

I know someone who did the cranking as an apprentice wheelwright. "Fifteen
minutes is about the limit!", and he was a fit teenager at the time. This was
turning wheel hubs for farm wagons, though, not a dainty turning by any stretch.
And they would occasionally snag and jump out at one.

Thomas Prufer