Homemade lathe

I made a mini lathe with a washing machine motor.

Made a micro lathe out of IBM typewriter parts.  The typewriter had hundreds
of springs, bolts and some steel shafts to salvage too.The typewriter has a
nice small size induction motor that is very quiet with enough power to do
small diameter work.

You should be able to adapt the treadle sewing machine to a wood lathe by
beefing up the flywheel with more thickness or weight.
Check online for treadle lathe how-to and adapt to the treadle sewing
machine.  The old singer machines are well built and work forever.
Jamffer

What's a "Typewriter"?!?!   };->

I have several Singer's, and yes, prior to 1960ish it was hard to kill
a Singer. I have a cheap Taiwan replacement treadle base I was
thinking of converting. If it works I'll let folks know.

Thanks.

Try a search of the archives here
http://people.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/faq.html
It's the Old Tools Group
Pete
Visit my site at:
http://www.oldtoolsshop.com/Galoots/pHyde/
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without

In 1960 I saw a sweat shop full of foot powered lathes in Hong Kong.  They  
consisted of two pedals which were pumped and a cord wound around a bamboo  
drum between bearings.  this resulted in a forward and backward rotation.  
They had a screw chuck on the headstock end to which they mounted ivory  
blocks.  They were turning ivory balls, the type with several balls within a  
ball.  I bought a chess set that had each piece mounted on one of these  
balls.

They used a small scraper which cut on both the forward and back rotation.  
They could cut a ball out faster than I ever will be able to do with a  
Oneway.

Paul Gilbert

The current issue of Popular Woodworking (August 2007, Issue #163) has
an article entitled A Bicycle Built for Bowls, that might be of
related interested.  It's about making a foot-powered lathe using
bicycle parts.  

Fine Woodworking had a collection out some years ago of plans for  
homemade woodworking tools.  There was a really nice looking treadle  
lathe in that using bicycle parts.

I loaned my copy of the book to a grad school professor...so much for  
that...

Michael Faurot wrote:

My wife has an old treadle in working condition.It was her great
grandmothers. I had the same thought as you, would make a lathe from
it. Wife had other thoughts, said she would do a Lorretta Bobbit on me
if I touched her treadle.
Made a treadle lathe from a couple of books, Roy Underhill has an
article in one book that shows you how. I used that lathe for several
years, finally removed the flywheel and treadle and added a motor.
Getting to old now to pump the treadle.
In any case I believe you could easily make a small pen lathe,
You would need a spindle with a morse taper and threads,so the old
method of using round stock for the spindle won't work for pens.I have
not turned pens , but I imagine the least you need is a morse taper
spindle.
You can get parts from Grizzly or many lathe manufacturers, ask for
replacement parts.Might be cheaper to buy an inexpensive lathe and
power it with the treadle.

mike