Neander lathe

[Brent Cutshall]

I had some free time, so I thought I'd share some recent projects. One of which was this lathe, I'm sure y'all have seen one of these. It's completely foot-powered. Now, I know what you're probably thinking, "That's the ugliest treadle lathe I've ever seen." Well, don't worry. I will plane it and round off the rough edges later. The drive center is a 5/8 threaded rod coupling that I modified.
image.jpg
The connection arm and wheel. The wheel can slide down in the slot in that angle iron to tighten the belt, and then I tighten the wheel back up.
image.jpg
I made the tool rest kinda simple. It's just a chunk of wood with a piece of rebar on top that's held on by an F-clamp. But, hey, it works though.
image.jpg
The dead center is held on by two carriage bolts that go through the bottom and some nuts on the underside. The bolts can be removed so that the dead center can be positioned in those hole down the middle of the table. The lathe itself will accept a spindle that anywhere from 1" to 34".
image.jpg
For any fine adjustments, the dead center(a 4" lag screw) can be loosened or tightened to add or subtract one or two inches. More in the next post.
image.jpg

[Brent Cutshall]

Time to try out this ugly sucker. I'm not much of a lathe person, but honestly, this thing is awesome. Here's a simple turning off of it(I don't know what they're called).
image.jpg
And socket chisel handle is always essential.
image.jpg
Even more coming up!

[Brent Cutshall]

It's a grinder too! Hot dog!
image.jpg
I like it better on this of the head though. And it works too.
image.jpg
All and all, I'm not that ashamed of it. It does everything I need it to do. For my first lathe, electric or otherwise, I think it TURNED out pretty good(see what I did there, TURNED, oh forget it). This has got me thinking about making a treadle-powered table saw and maybe a band saw. Any advice? Anything y'all would change?

[Mike Baker 2]

That's just nifty, Brent. I like it.

[Jim Koepke]

It looks fine to me, but if it works it doesn't matter if it is ugly.

jtk

[george wilson]

You'll need to file the top of the rebar flat to get rid of the raised pattern in the metal. Otherwise,how can you draw the turning tools across the re bar smoothly ?

[Bob Glenn]

I was thinking the same thing, George. No rebar at all would work better, IMO. The tool rest on my pole lathe just uses a piece of oak which I keep slick with candle wax.

[David Ragan]

Love the pole lathe; I've often thought about making a foot powered lathe.

Seems like Brent's wheel would generate more momentum, though.

[Brent Cutshall]

You'll need to file the top of the rebar flat to get rid of the raised pattern in the metal. Otherwise,how can you draw the turning tools across the re bar smoothly ?

I was thinking the same thing. So far it hasn't been a problem, I agree it would be better if it was smooth. Thanks for the advice!

[Brent Cutshall]

Love the pole lathe; I've often thought about making a foot powered lathe.

Seems like Brent's wheel would generate more momentum, though.

The reason why I made a treadle lathe instead of a spring pole lathe is because I like the continuous one-way motion of the wheel. I do like the spring pole style though. They seem more traditional.

[Bob Glenn]

The reason why I made a treadle lathe instead of a spring pole lathe is because I like the continuous one-way motion of the wheel. I do like the spring pole style though. They seem more traditional.

I use this lathe at eighteen century reenactments. You're right, continuous rotation is more efficient, however, the crowds really enjoy seeing all the action of the reciprocation and how the underslung spring pole action is transmitted up, over, across and down to the spindle and treadle. People will stand and watch as long as I will stand there and pump!