A couple of projects have been sneaking up on me. They both require wood parts that are round and/or cylindrical. A wood lathe would be helpful.
The first project is a wind turbine that isn’t ready for the light of day.
The second job is related to my chisels. I’ve been using antique chisels to practice timber framing skills. They’re starting to show wear and tear. The old handles are splitting. I decided to make new ones without using electricity. Except to run the lights. the fan. the refrigerator. OK, I didn’t want to use power tools to make the handles.
So, I built a wood lathe.
Originally, it was going to be powered with a treadle. It worked, sort of. I figured out that I’d need to take up a lot more room than I wanted to get efficiency out of a treadle. So, my wood lathe is hand powered.
A hand powered wood lathe is not a great wood lathe.
It might be a good enough wood lathe though.
I have cherry wood in the lathe. I’m happy with the results–I’m able to turn hardwood on the contraption.
Here’s the video on YouTube and also locally posted in case the YouTube link doesn’t work.
That smiley face looks like it’s watching me.
–JS