Technology for Luddites
“Hi everybody my name is Chris. I choose my woodworking projects based on whatever happens to inspire me”.
In this video, Chris builds a foot powered treadle lathe. Great project, great video.
Via Old Engineering.
Previously:
“The bowls created by Robin Wood’s reconstructed lathe have an unique finish, which is only found in bowls cut with a traditional pole lathe. The sharp tools leave a distinctive mark much like the lines found on thrown earthen ware or glass. The clean cut with the sharpened tools means that the objects are practical for everyday use. They can be washed with warm soapy water and will not fuzz up, unlike a bowl cut
on a machine lathe and later sanded smooth. Robin’s bowls and plates only improve with use and ware.”
“Of course making wooden table ware for a living means making thousands of items every year, which seems rather a tall order when you consider the technology being used, but Rob insists that his pole lathe can turn out wooden ware as quickly as the mechanised equivalent. This theory has been put to the test and proven correct. As Robin explains in the
film, when he’s powered up, so is his lathe and he can get results quickly. When he stops the lathe turning he can adjust the wood instantaneously, whereas when you power down a mechanical lathe you have to wait for the machine to slow down and stop turning in it’s own time.”
“Any fool can make something more complex but it takes real genius to make things simple again“. A new video by Artisan Media. Robin Wood’s blog.
Via Toolemera. Previously: Make your own treadle lathe.
In the last twenty years or so since I built this foot-powered treadle lathe, I have received many requests for drawings or plans.
The lathe has been used as part of our traditional woodworking demonstrations and it never fails to draw a crowd. Of course, the reason the lathe exists is because I felt a need for it as a tool.
Some of the main considerations when designing the lathe were:
“Metalworking lathes are necessary to the production of almost everything but are very expensive. In 1915, special lathes made from concrete were developed to quickly and cheaply produce millions of cannon shells needed for World War I.
Lucien Yeomans, the inventor, won the nation’s highest engineering award for it but sadly the technique was almost forgotten after the war. We re-discovered it as a way to quickly make inexpensive but accurate machine tools for use in developing countries and in trade schools and shops everywhere.”
Pat Delany developed a metalworking lathe design that uses concrete parts cast in wooden molds to achieve high precision at a rock-bottom price of $150. Find the detailed building plans at Make Projects. Also check out Pat Delany’s low-cost DIY machine tools (such as a hand-powered drill and a treadle-powered generator), all built from recycled parts.
Man versus machine (video). Traditional bowl turner Robin Wood on his foot powered lathe races a friend on an electric lathe to see who can make a bowl fastest. Related: the museum of old techniques.
