What is a treadle lathe?
A lathe is a machine in which a piece of wood is rotated around a fixed axis while being shaped by a fixed tool. A treadle lathe is simply the same where the rotation is caused by the up and down movement of the operators foot on a treadle - a foot powered lever. The lever is hinged on the end nearest the operator, and the end furtherst away is attached to a shaft, or pitman arm, which is connected to a weighted flywheel. Not all lathes with treadles are considered "treadle lathes". A true treadle lathe imparts continuous rotation to the workpiece being shaped.
Reciprocal vs. Continuous Rotation
Three types of lathes I have discovered have treadles which provide power and only one of them is truly a "treadle lathe". These are the bow lathe, the spring pole lathe, and the treadle lathe. What differentiates them is the nature of the rotation of the workpiece.
Bow lathes and spring pole lathes are earlier and simpler versions of the lathe. They are characterized by the reciprocal motion of the workpiece. This means that, as the operator's foot moves downward on the treadle the workpiece spins one way, then as the operator releases pressure on the treadle and it moves up, the workpiece reverses the direction of rotation. The number and speed of the rotations it makes in one direction, before reversing, is generally controled by the travel of the treadle and the number of times the cord (which transfers the motion from the treadle assembly to the workpiece) is wrapped around the workpiece. The motion is dependant on the up and down movement of a cord tied between the treadle and either an overhead bow (in the case of a bow lathe) or an overhead sapling pole (in the case of the spring pole lathe). The operator pressing against the treadle provides the downward motion of the cord, while the recoil of the deflected bowstring/sapling provides the upward movement. Somewhere in the middle the cord is wrapped around the workpiece which rotates differently depending on whether the string is going up or down.
In a treadle lathe, force is imparted only when the operator's foot is moving down. No force, other than the momentum of the weighted flywheel acts on the upstroke. Since the flywheel, once spinning, only moves in one direction, the workpiece only moves in one direction. In addtion, the cord or belt driving the flywheel and workpiece never actually contacts the workpiece. Rather, it is suspended between the flywheel and a drive pully on the headstock. A shaft, or mandrel as it is called, runs through the drive pully and has a chuck or spur center on the end which provides the connection between the drive system and the workpiece. This method is more complicated than that of the bow lathe or the spring pole lathe and requires more attention and engineering.
Where do I find plans?
This is the number one question on the subject on USENET. There are a number of resources where you can find construction information, partial plans, complete plans etc. As usual some sources are better than others. For our purposes I have divided this section up into the major sources of plans that are discussed. One note of caution. I have taken every means at my disposal to verify the authenticity or contents of some of the following, however, some of the books people talk about I have never found or even seen. I have most of the books and other information on the subject as I was planning on building one of these, and may still someday. There is also the problem that some of the better sources are extremely hard to find. I point those out as we go along. More information on any of the books below can be found on my library page, assuming I have the book.
A. Pole Lathes
I have added this pole lathe section because there seems to be more information on pole lathes than treadle lathes. They are also very popular with Renaissance and Medieval re-enactors as they are easier to carry around to events. This is probably why for probably hundreds of years after treadle lathes were first introduced, woodworkers still stuck with pole lathes as well.
Hand or Simple Turning by Holtzapffel provides a great deal of information on the construction of pole lathes in chapter 1.
The January/February 1986 Article of Fine Woodworking (#56) has an article by Jim Leche on building a pole lathe.
Alex Bealer's book, Old Ways of Working Wood devotes the entirety of Appendix I to providing plans for a pole lathe.
Drew Langsner's Country Workshops web site is often described as having pole lathe plans. Actually it has a really rough reprint of a shaving horse plan. His book The Chairmaker's Workshop has a plan in it.
Ilovewood.com has a plan for a pole lathe.
This site has some interesting bow lathe information.
The October 1996 issue of American Woodworker (#57) has Don Weber's plans for a bungee cord pole lathe.
Finally, Green Woodwork, a good book by Mike Abbott, has great plans for a pole lathe as well as lots of excellent information on working wood bodger-style.
B. Magazines
This section is quite short because all but one of the important magazine articles to be found on treadle lathes are reprinted in Fine Woodworking on Making and Modifying Machines. More about that in the book section.
This leaves the October 2000 issue of Popular Woodworking magazine where Roy Underhill provides a written companion to his 1998 season episode (#1806) on making a treadle lathe from discarded loft timbers. I highly recommend you obtain the back issue of this to go with the video. It can be purchased online from the Popular Woodworking web site.
C. Books
There are several books with interesting information on treadle lathes. I am going to start with the books that just touch on the subject, or have simple background, and work my way to the "must haves". Remember, more information on any of the books below can be found on my library page, again, assuming I have the book.
Designing a treadle lathe is a personal endeavor. I would certainly not jump in and make an exact duplicate of Roy Underhill's lathe. Rather, look at a number of historical lathes and make yours to suit what you have seen and liked. To begin that journey, take a look at Jost Amman's Book of Trades. It was written in 1568 and the woodcuts and sketches provide plenty of information on the "historical look" of lathes of the past. It has been reprinted by Dover Publications and is widely available.
Not nearly as widely available at last look is Mechanick Exercises by Joseph Moxon. The diagrams in this book, first published in 1678, were used by Roy Underhill himself, so you can get an idea where his head was at. Any reputable bookstore should be able to get hold of this, or you can try Amazon or Barnes and Noble online. I picked mine up off of the shelf at Colonial Williamsburg, but I don't think it is as easy to find anywhere.
Underhill's first book, The Woodwright's Shop has a good discussion of the pole, great wheel, and treadle lathes with some excellent black and white photos on pages 117 to 119 showing his first, very famous lathe. There isn't really a lot of construction detail given. This book is widely available, even from PBS online.
I have seen references to How to Build a Treadle-Operated Woodturning Lathe by Bob Ingham (ISBN 30946688) but I have yet to find it in real life. I will keep looking.
Fine Woodworking on Making and Modifying Machines is the oft quoted reprint of several articles on making woodworking machines that appeared in the pages of that esteemed magazine since it's inception in the 1970's. On page 94 is a reprint of Jim Richey's 1979 article on building a treadle lathe. Also, on page 99 is Richard Starr's article on making a lathe from bicycle parts. This information is based on second hand references however. I have ordered this book and am still waiting. You see, it is no longer in print, so you will have a job of finding it. Your best bet would be to locate a woodworking store with a dusty old copy on the shelves. Failing that you could try ordering it online from a woodworker's supply store, such as Lee Valley etc. It is getting harder to find all the time.
Alex Bealer's Old Ways of Working Wood devotes all of Appendix II to providing plans for a treadle lathe. They have been described as complicated by some on USENET, but in general they should allow you to get one built. The main problem is lack of drawings of the the entire assembly, so you fail to get an accurate representation of the big picture. All things being equal, you still have a very detailed description of how to build a treadle lathe. This book is widely available.
Now we get down to the last two books I can recommend on the subject. These are the most important works in my opinion. First is Roy Underhill's The Woodwright's Workbook, published in 1986. This is, by far, the written resource most talked about on USENET. The information on treadle lathes starts on page 69. This famous discussion of Roy Underhill's reproduction of the Colonial Williamsburg treadle lathe contains loads of construction details and plenty of excellent black and white photography, with closeups, showing the headstock and pulley system. The measured drawings provided are rife with details on design and joinery.
Where this classic book falls short is in the details required to reproduce the metalwork necessary for creating the power transfer from the treadle to the flywheel, and the details on the spindle (mandrel) and the drive center. His "assemblage of plumbing fixtures" description is maddeningly vague. In any event I would recommend his new flywheel design found in his video and the October 2000 Popular Woodworking article. It is far simpler and more reliable.
As for the drive center, I believe it was purchased. Lee Valley used to stock a replacement drive center for a Beaver lathe that attched to the spindle by means of a set screw. I believe, however, that it has been removed from their catalog so you would have to look for yourself. The new version in the video/magazine article has a spindle where the drive is cold pounded out of the end. This is fine, but limiting. Holtzapffel's book (see the following book description) has a better way of handling this.
The Woodwright's Workbook is widely available though numerous online vendors, or any reputable bookseller.
The final book, and most important in my opinion, is Holtzapffel's Hand or Simple Turning, first published in 1881. The first thing you have to realize about this book, however, is that it is not a book of plans. The book is a complete and very detailed discussion of lathe history, construction, tools, and methods.
Starting with the Eqyptian evidence for lathes, the history of lathe construction is surveyed until contemporary times (the 1880's for this book). Where the book rises above others is the sheer volume of detail provided describing the construction details of the lathe. Using this detail you can fill in the blanks where most "plans" leave off. One of the perceived problems with the book is lack of information about the drive spurs and the spindle (mandrel in Holtzapffel's book). This is actually not true. You just have to keep reading. Hotzapffel spends a great deal of time describing the practices of forming the drive mandrel (spindle) but he seems to leave the drive center out of the picture. In fact he discusses "chucks" based on their own merits in an entirely different chapter where all types of workholding devices are described.
To expand on this, chapter I contains the history. Chapter IV describes modern (19th century) lathes, and chapter V is all about index collars, rests and screw cutters. Chapters II and III are where the treadle lathe and mandrel information is found, and chapter VI is where you find the drive centers and other chucks. Really, the depth of information and excellent pictures in this book should be enough to produce a lathe. This book has been reprinted by Dover Publications and is widely available.
D. Online
DISCLAIMER: As usual these links were functional at the time of writing. There were LOADS of links that came up with the search term "treadle lathe", and yes the quotes were used. I only included the very best because link rot quickly diminishes the value of this kind of information. Thus it is best to do the search yourself and get the freshest links.
The BoysLathe.pdf file is a reprint of the well publicised (over the internet anyway) Grolier's Book of Knowledge article on how to build a treadle lathe. I was fortunate to find this web site. I first learned of this article a few years back. It wasn't hard to find references to it. Many people had links to it. The problem was that everyone's link pointed to the same web site and that site had stopped serving the file a long time ago, so all the links were, in effect, dead. Now, I have become somewhat paranoid because of this, so, I have also stored this file here. I am not sure what the copyright is on the file, it is from the early 1900's, so I am taking the chance. If I have violated your rights, please let me know and I will remove it. The page I have referenced above, however, has many fine articles on it and is worth a look.
This is Thomas Rettie's excellent SCA page on lathe history and construction. Very well written and documented (be sure to check out his reference section) he has examples of his turning plus pictures and descriptions of his Underhill-esque lathe that he built.
This is an excellent page showing detailed photos of a home made treadle lathe. It is somewhat short on written info unfortunately. Unfortunately the author doesn't give his name or email or I would have asked him how he formed his drive spur. It appears to be ground onto the end of his spindle/mandrel.
At this page you can purchase plans for a workbench with a treadle lathe built into it. There is also an article on how to turn with a treadle lathe.
Building a woodturning lathe is a fine web page put together by George Farrell. It isn't strictly a treadle lathe page as his lathe is actually powered by an electric motor, but the lathe itself is just like a regular treadle lathe. One of the positive things about this page is that it has more detail about the headstock and spindle than most articles. Excellent photos and drawings.
Ye Art & Mysterie of Turning is an interesting little site with insights into the history of lathes. One of the best parts is the links section at the end, but it contains most of the famous drawings of historical lathes and turning from a stack of books you don't really need to buy of you follow what I have written here.
E. Video
Ther is only one video that I am aware of and that is Roy Underhill's Woodwright's Shop episode 1806 from the 1998 season. As with any episode it is fun to watch and you get a good survey of his treadle lathe from a loft plan, but can you make the lathe from the video alone? Probably not, in my opinion. There are two main flaws in the episode. First, Roy spends far too much time explaining how to build and shape the flywheel. Because of that, the rest of the show lacks the same detail and attention. This causes the second major flaw; he doesn't spend enough time talking about the head stock - specifically about how he formed the drive spur - and no time on the tail stock. However, with the companion article from Popular Woodworking, you should be set.
There is only one other problem. Many web sites list PBS as the source for the video. They have stopped selling it. In fact, it has become nearly impossible to find. The Woodwright's Shop is produced by the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television. But don't go to their web site or try to buy it from UNC online. There is a telephone number printed on the video tape itself. That is your best bet and the number is 1-800-693-3939. Make sure to call during office hours, Eastern time.
What resources are available online?
For more information check the pole lathe and online sections under Where do I find plans?. Other than that, there are loads of web pages that come up when you search "treadle lathe", with the quotes, on Google. Also try it without the quotes or various combinations of other phrases including one or both of the words.
Also try searching for treadle lathes at Google groups, the online newsgroup archive. This issue has been discussed widely for years.
I keep hearing about Roy Underhill. Why?
Other than Jim Richey's article in Fine Woodworking Magazine in 1979, Roy Underhill's treadle lathe was one of the earliest to be documented in contemporary, popular print (see the books section) but was also widely seen in his longrunning (20+ years) PBS television series, The Woodwright's Shop. One of the companion books to the series, written in 1986 and entitled The Woodwright's Workbook, contains the plans and many of the construction details for this lathe. It has long been discussed and coveted by treadle lathe enthusiasts everywhere. In addition to this, in the 1998 season he produced an episode in which he built one of these lathes and followed that up with an article in Popular Woodworking in 2000. His is the foundation of much of the treadle lathe information and many of the designs that you will find. It is woodworking's most famous lathe, I think. There is more information under Books, Magazines, and Video.
Treadle Lathe Pros?
Treadle lathes are more historically accurate than electric lathes, and require no utility connections to run, so you can operate them anywhere. This makes them somewhat portable. They can be built for very little money and can function as well as any other lathe if you take the time and care to build them properly. Many experienced turners on USENET have commented that they have seen much fine work produced on treadle lathes, and plenty of garbage produced on the best of powered lathes.
Treadle lathes are a fun project to build, and a fun project to have around. Let's face it, a dining room table isn't much fun sitting around the shop. A treadle lathe is a project you build for yourself. You can make it as fancy or as plain as you like as you are the one enjoying it after it is completed.
Treadle lathes probably max out at under 1000 rpm so they are safer to learn on for kids. They would also be a great project to get the kids involved. They are also a great form of exercise.
Treadle Lathe Cons?
Treadle lathes have been described as exhausting to use. You will get a real workout, so if you are sure you want to take this route you must understand that no project will be easy to make. The speed has been described as inconsistent. As you pump the treadle, your leg motion is not constant in its speed pushing down. It takes a bit of extra force at the top of the stroke so the flywheel slows a bit. Once your foot is at the bottom of the stroke, it is moving much faster. The net effect is that the speed pulses somewhat. Standing at a regular lathe, you just have to make sure you are standing comfortably and safely. With a treadle lathe, your stance must include the fact that one leg is pumping up and down. This is compounded by the fact that your hands are trying to shape a piece of fast spinning wood with a sharp tool. There is a certain degree of coordination required, and it is not innate. It will take some practice.
Aside from these factors you are dealing with a machine that you built youself. Unless it is your third or fourth lathe there may be some design factors you would like to change. It probably won't be perfect the first try. Also, if you want a historically accurate lathe to take to Medieval or Renaissance Faires, you should probably try a spring pole lathe. Treadle lathes can be heavy.
Everything I see on the headstock spindle is vague.
What should I do?
The best thing to do with the spindle is keep it simple. Roy Underhill's plan for mounting it seems to be a good solution. The real question is what to do about a drive spur. I would go one of two ways on this. The first and simplest method would be to follow Roy Underill's instructions and leave the spindle/mandrel long enough to be cold pounded flat into a blade. I would suggest turning a center point onto the spindle afterwards if possible. Filing one on would probably work but would not be as accurately centered as one turned on while the spindle was turning.
The method I would try would be to buy a tap and die that match the diameter of the spindle. Then I would thread the end that protrudes from the headstock, then assemble. This would give you a spindle much like that described in Holtzapffel's book. Then I would drill out some bar stock a bit larger than the spindle and tap it so that it could be threaded onto the spindle. The other end would then be turned while the lathe was rotating to give you a perfectly centered center point. This is described in the Holtzapffel book. Then I would use some method similar to that in Bealer's book to file the spurs onto this drive center. The drive spur would then be removeable so that several types of chucks could be fitted to the spindle.
In the end, keep the spindle simple. Use straight, grooveless bar stock for the spindle. Make sure it is a regular size then mount it, a la Underhill, to the headstock with plain flange bearings. Then choose the drive center of your preference.
Can I buy a spindle?
I have read where a Craftsman lathe spindle was used successfully by a treadle lathe builder. One of the problems with this is not having a part number. If you can get the guy at Sears to let you look at parts diagrams of a couple lathes you should be fine. I read about this on USENET but do not remember exactly where. I do remember that the author did not publish a part number or I would have written that down. Make sure that any bought spindle you use, regardless of what brand, is basically a plain, straight shaft. Tapers or grooves will make it hard to assemple your drive assembly. One of the biggest benefits of this type of construction, of course, is that your shaft will have a Morse taper like other new lathes making your lathe capable of using off the shelf drive centers and chucks.
How heavy should the flywheel be?
The general concensus here is, "the heavier, the better."
What type of bearings should I use?
Especially if you are following Roy Underhill's design, you need basic, economy grade, flange ball bearings. You can get them sealed, semi sealed, or unsealed. Make sure whatever bearings you purchase have a flange or collar which will seat against the wood of the headstock, while the body slides into the counterbore you make for it. You can use the bearings that are not rated for high speed becasue you lathe won't go over 1000 RPM in all liklihood. In fact you will probably run it at much less.
Underhill talks about thrust bearings in his video, but true thrust bearings are conical shaped animals that are meant for high force/speed applications. You want one piece sets.
Alternatively, you could use pillow blocks if you wanted to mount them atop of your headstock, I suppose. There are many types of bearing and maybe you will find better ones to suit your design. Check you local supplier.
Where do I buy bearings?
Try Kart World for an online source. I haven't really found a good online source. You could try the JC Whitney catalog, but I haven't looked there so it is just a suggestion. Probably your best bet is to look up "bearing" in the yellow pages and visit a couple of your local bearing dealers.
What is a mandrel? A spindle?
For clarification I offer this explanation, found in the books listed above.
The terms mandrel and spindle seem to be used somewhat interchangeably here. In fact the spindle is the shaft that runs through the drive pulley and is suspended by bearings of some description on either side of that pulley.
The mandrel is the workholding piece at the end. If you cold hammer the drive spur out of the end of the spindle as Underhill did, or file it out as Bealer suggests, this is considered a self-contained mandrel, or a mandrel built into the spindle. Most modern lathes, and the Holtzapffel lathe, have interchangeable mandrels.
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
Personally, if I were to build one of these after this research, I would go the route of simplicity. My lathe would be based on Roy Underhill's lathe from a loft design (1998)
but I would make it look cosmetically similar to his first treadle lathe. Actually, my lathe would have features of several diagrams and woodcuts of historic lathes.
The basic drive system would be similar to Underhill's but the spindle would be right out of the Holtzapffel book, with the drive center being a combination of Holtzapffel and Bealer. Look at George Farrell's web site. There are interesting design features on his lathe too.
It would be hard to stick to just one design. If you look at all the resources above you will see that the best road would probably be to combine all the elements you have looked at into one machine that suits your needs the best.
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