Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
St Roy - Spring Pole & Treadle Lathe
Larry Gelder
>St. Roy was on my PBS station last Friday 12:30. The show was on spring pole and treadle lathes. Of course, being a creature of habit, I programmed my VCR to record for Saturday at 10:30.
Does anyone have a copy of this show? If so, could you help a poor brother? I want to make a lathe to turn bowls (mostly).
Re: St Roy - Spring Pole & Treadle Lathe
Phil Joines Krum, Tx
>Does a treadle lathe have the torque for bowls? I can see doing them up to about 6" but it would take really light cuts over that.
Re: St Roy - Spring Pole & Treadle Lathe *LINK*
BobStrawn
>Does a treadle lathe have the torque for bowls? A treadle lathe, Can be quickly adjusted to have a very wide range of torques.
The variables, are how much step pressure you want to take, ranging from all your weight to just a touch, and how big around your drive spindle is. Larger means slower and more torque. Depending on how complex the drive system is, you can have a flywheel on a lathe and have frightening torque that you should probably buffer with a belt to allow slippage for safety.
Re: St Roy - Spring Pole & Treadle Lathe
Warren in Lancaster, Pa
>I think many turners would find a treadle lathe somewhat under powered for bowl turning. However in days gone by people used these lathes for bowls. When you are the one supplying the power you are encouraged to develop cleaner technique and more finesse.
Although I have used the pole lathe professionally for years, I would not recommend it for bowls. The various methods adapting the pole lathe for bowls all seem clumsy to me. In addition, a turning with diameter of say 6 inches or larger, once rotating, does not want to stop, making reciprocating motion difficult.
Last January I tried a portable pole lathe made by Roy. He pulled it all set up out of his van. It was workable enough (Roy did compliment my technique), but it seemed a little like Tinker Toy. If you make a pole lathe, get a 12 foot pole.
Re: St Roy - Spring Pole & Treadle Lathe *LINK*
Tim Caley - North Litttle Rock
>Here is one made by Don Webber that shows it being used to turn a bowl.
He also had one in Popular Woodworking a couple of months ago that used bicycle hardware and pedals for turning bowls to be used in the jungles of South America.
http://www.handcraftwoodworks.com/greenwood.html
Oh no! No!
Bill Houghton, sunny Sebastopol, CA
>Another website full of interesting stuff to divert me from the shop! Aauugghhh!
Check this out... *LINK*
Michael Recchione
>This guy turns nested bowls on a springpole lathe. Pretty cool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz7PJ2WuLWA&mode=related&search=
I've read his book... very good *LINK*
Larry Gelder
>Wooden Bowl hsitory
Wooden Bowl
Re: Check this out...
ThomD
>Is that Robin Woods? My computer is beneath Youtube. With the modern technique, anything under about 3hp (no kidding) is underpower for lathes. There is a peeling cut that takes a shaving that puts a veneer mill to shame. My bowl lathe is old school and only has 3/4 hp. I have seen a picture of an African bowl lathe that consisted of a dowel hammered into either side of a blank, spining on some kind of stick V-blocks, with a second person pulling a belt in a reciprocating motion.
Richard Star invented that bike lathe for kids to use in his school woodworking shop.
Re: Check PBS
ThomD
>They have some of the WS shows in downloadable form.
Re: St Roy - Spring Pole & Treadle Lathe
George Makowski
>Larry, Underhill has sections on lathes and turning in, I believe, two of his books. In addition to all the great web-info out there now, there is also one of the early Foxfire books with a large section on springpole lathes. That is the info that I used to build my first lathe back in the day.
I never tried bowls, but the folks in England do make bowls on springpole lathes. The web will tell you more than I can, but the key appears to be working with green wood and using special hooked tools to reach in and work around the core of the turning.
Good turning,
George in AL
Re: Robin Wood
Larry G
>Robin Wood. He uses a spring pole lathe to turn green wood.
There's a battle of the bowlturners on YouTube, where Robin and the spring pole take on a turner with an electric-motor lathe. I think the turner on the motor lathe spent about 7 hours in the pub, prior to the contest. He finishes ahead of Robin, the bowl-turning wonder, but produces one the crappiest bowls known to man. Robin's bowl was splendid.