Treadle Lathe

doozer · 2005-10-27T13:22:51+00:00

Hi folks,My latest project is to build a foot powered wood working lathe but thereare a few points that I am having trouble with design wise and I wouldappreciate some advice.I'm fairly good at working wood but I have very little experience workingmetal. There is, unfortunatly for me, two bits of the lathe that I thinkhave to be fabricated in metal - the treadle mechanism and the head / tailstock.I think I can probably muddle my way through a design for the head / tailstock (I was thinking of using a drill chuck or something similar) but thetreadle 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 :o)A = Crank ~5cmB = Flywheel AxleC = Other Crank Bit ~30cm (Sorry don't know the correct names)D = Bearing (I hope)E = Another BearingF = Treadle Plate (it's pivotted BTW)Z = Shows this bar is much longer than ACan you buy this sort of set up? If so where as google has let me down. Ifnot how would you go about producing this? I have considered butchering acouple of bicycle pedles but that feels like a really bad solution.Many Thanks,Graham