Foot Pedal Lathe

[George Octon]

Does anyone have any experience with these? How do they work? What do you think? Thank you.

[Cecil Walborn]

I have a treadle lathe that I built to experience the foot power lathe. I use it at our farmers market there to show people what woodturning is. It is easy move and set up and I do not have to have electricity to power it. One things I learned from it is that if your tools are dull you will notice it, because it takes more energy to turn the lathe. Also you have to be able to pump the treadle and cut with you tool all that the same time, because you are standing on one leg and pumping with the other leg. I have had people come by my booth and not know what woodturning is, now they can see first hand what it is. I enjoy it a lot but I could not keep up with the sales if that is all that I had to make the bowls for sale.

Cecil Walborn

[Don Bunce]

I made a treadle lathe from the plans in Fine Woodworking many years ago. I also made a spring pole lathe. Both work quite well, the treadle is a bit more involved to build, requiring a flywheel, and revolving spindle. Adding metal weights to the flywheel helps.

I would recommend making a spring pole lathe first.



Utube has many videos on both.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDgIGzw4VtA

[Reed Gray]

Well, personally I would opt for one of the treadle type lathes. I have a friend who built one with an old sewing machine treadle that you rocked back and forth, rather than a more bicycle type one. I would go for the bicycle type. Roy Underhill from the Woodright's shop had a very nice one. It has a turned big wood wheel for the fly wheel. My friend who built one used the brake drum from a car for his fly wheel, and it was round and balanced. Maybe one from a big truck if you want to go heavier.

Not sure if this will work directly, but this typed into google shows a lot of man powered lathes:

Images for roy underhill wood lathe

I still get a kick out of the above video with Robin Wood vs the other guy on the power lathe..... Well, I have probably turned a lot more bowls than the guy on the power lathe......

robo hippy

[Wayne Lovell]

I have a friend who is a custom saddle maker and most of his sewing machine are treadle, he says he has more control with treadle power. He buys any of the old leather sewing machines he finds, most of them were converted from treadle to electric and he converts them back to treadle.

I would like to find plans for making a treadle lathe from form an old sewing machine home base, I have an old base with the treadle mechanism intact. I am sure I would not use it much but it would be a nice conservation piece.

[John Conklin]

I don't know anything about them, but someone on the local Craigslist had an old treadle lathe and scrollsaw for sale. I would have bought both if I'd had a place to put them... and if the boss would have allowed it.

[Ralph Lindberg]

I also own a treadle lathe, that I take to shows. It generates a lot of talk and traffic.
But for productivity, I don't have Robin Woods legs or stamina .

[Fred Morton]

I've owned two treadle lathes - in my experience they are fun, interesting and different, but really just a distraction from powered wood turning.

Here is a link to one of the types I've owned. Wayne, this may help you convert your sewing machine base into a treadle lathe:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/goodell-pratt/page3.html

Fredo

[Jim Underwood]

I've owned two treadle lathes - in my experience they are fun, interesting and different, but really just a distraction from powered wood turning.

Fredo

Ha! Tell that to Robin Wood! He once nearly won a competition treadle turning bowls against an electric lathe.

[Reed Gray]

Jim, I can turn a bowl WAY faster than the guy that Robin was competing with. Interesting to me in the video is that the outsides were already turned when they started. If I had my 3 hp Beauty, well, brute strength can give as much of an advantage as good technique. Of course, brute strength is nothing without good technique. Well, sharp tools too....

robo hippy

[Jim Underwood]

I'm sure you can turn that bowl faster on your Beauty... (you suck, by the way ) I was just pointing out that the treadle turning was more than just a distraction from power turning. Yes most of us will only play around with it a bit, but at one point in history any turning that was done, was done with human powered lathes, and Robin still does it even to this day.

[Don Bunce]

https://www.bodgers.org.uk/index.php...l=1&limitstart=