Hand Cranked Lathe Build Log

[Hawkeye]

Mount a spring pole to power it. The old chair builders used to lathe all the wooden chair legs right in the woods using a sapling to power a lathe.
It works just like a bow drill.

[Gun Freak]

Yeah I've seen those. I don't get how they work though...

[clemsonguy1125]

You pump the foot pedal which pulls down a spring with a string wrapped around what your turning as the spring pulls up it spins the wood

[Gun Freak]

How does it return?

[clemsonguy1125]

You pedal it again

[saefroch]

... wouldn't that just spin one way for a bit then reverse direction when you pump it again?

[Gun Freak]

Yeah that's what I don't get...

[clemsonguy1125]

me niether but thats how the video looks, maybe it does that

[Gun Freak]

It seems like it would still work good though.

EDIT: found it:

In olden times, and I do mean OLD, the power source was a springy pole, that would pull the rope wrapped around your workpiece back after you’d pushed down on the treadle to rotate it. This would create a reciprocal or back and forth motion of the workpiece. You’d apply your tool on the down stroke, and ease off on the up stroke. This is the wood turning was done for hundreds of years.

[Hawkeye]

The pedal pulls the against the resistance of the pole and then the pedal is released and the pole pulls back up. The spindle(or material being worked) obviously reverses direction on the up and downstroke. It doesn't have to spin continuously in one direction. As long as it isn't spinning only part of a revolution(which it obviously won't be) you are cutting around the entire circumference of the material.
It really can't get much simpler. No future mechanical engineers here I guess....

[jor2daje]

http://www.instructables.com/id/A-moder ... ole-lathe/

You only cut on the down stroke, as hawkeye says it obviously does more than one revolution per stroke. Its really very simple.