Wooden turner's foot lathe

Wooden turner's foot lathe

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Wooden turner's foot lathe, 17th or early 18th century, complete with tools and accessories

This treadle lathe was probably made in the late seventeenth century. The headstock and tailstock are secured to the wooden bearers forming the bed of the lathe by means of wooden wedges driven through slots in the uprights. The five-speed pulley on the mandrel may be driven rapidly for plain turning by means of the treadle and flywheel, which is of solid wood and provided with six grooves for the driving band. The slide-rest has a single slide the screw of which has the same pitch as one of the guide screws. The screw carries a circular scale with six divisions.

The nose end of the mandrel runs in a cylindrical collar and the pointed back end is supported in a hollowed adjustable centre. When roseturning the collar is released by removing a locking screw so that it is free to swing about a pivot in the headstock. The mandrel carries a group of ten rosettes, any one of which may be made to press against a rubber, which may be fixed anywhere along a bar running parallel with the mandrel. The rosette is kept pressed against the rubber by means of a spring which is connected with the collar by a cord. As the spring is placed for convenience at the back of the lathe, the cord passes over a small pulley on the headstock so that the collar is pulled forwards. The tension is adjustable in five steps. A stationary tool applied to the work will thus cut a wavy line. For rose-turning the mandrel is rotated slowly by means of a winch-driven pulley attached to the front of the lathe bed. A rosette fitted at the nose end of the mandrel has waves on the face in addition to those on the edge. Five guide-screws of different-pitch are cut on the rear portion of the mandrel. Below each of them is a wooden bearing which has the corresponding thread impressed upon it, so that it may be used as a screw key. If one of these keys is raised, by inserting a wedge below it, to support the mandrel, the latter advances as it rotates, so that a screw-cutting tool of the same pitch held against the work mounted in the chuck will cut a screw. This is the oldest method of cutting screws in the lathe.

The equipment of the lathe includes a hand rest, two poppet heads, sliderest tools, turning tools and chasers. There are also an eccentric chuck and an oval chuck which are probably of later date.

Details

Category:
Hand and Machine Tools
Object Number:
1935-634
type:
lathes
credit:
Mr. Sannyer Atkin.

Parts

Wooden turner's foot lathe

Wooden turner's foot lathe

The lathe as set up with frame on boards, footwheel and crank, pitman and treadle and gut band. Back screw for mandrel on spring, neck poppit with followers/7 mounted: Rocking lever pulley and spring attached to above by gut mandrel with pulley and barrel of 10 rosettes. A box for 5 followers with the followers and two keys and hand motion. A slide rest on socket with bolt bonnet and keeper and with cutter mounted in the rest. A adjustable back poppit with centre screw in iron piece, bolt and keeper; plain back poppit with key but not screw

Object Number:
1935-634/1
type:
lathe
Wooden turner's foot lathe

Wooden turner's foot lathe

The lathe as set up with frame on boards, footwheel and crank, pitman and treadle and gut band. Back screw for mandrel on spring, neck poppit with followers/7 mounted: Rocking lever pulley and spring attached to above by gut mandrel with pulley and barrel of 10 rosettes. A box for 5 followers with the followers and two keys and hand motion. A slide rest on socket with bolt bonnet and keeper and with cutter mounted in the rest. A adjustable back poppit with centre screw in iron piece, bolt and keeper; plain back poppit with key but not screw

Object Number:
1935-634/1/1
type:
lathe
Eccentric brass chuck

Eccentric brass chuck

Eccentric brass chuck fitted with boxwood workpiece or chuck

Object Number:
1935-634/2
type:
chuck
Fragment from Wooden turner's foot lathe

Fragment from Wooden turner's foot lathe

Fragment of wood detached from the surface of turner's foot lathe

Materials:
wood (unidentified)
Object Number:
1935-634/1/2
type:
lathe
Oval brass chuck and chuck ring (no bolts)

Oval brass chuck and chuck ring (no bolts)

Oval brass chuck and chuck ring (no bolts), chuck lacks a screw

Materials:
brass
Object Number:
1935-634/3
type:
chuck
Iron adapter chuck (male both ends)

Iron adapter chuck (male both ends)

Iron adapter chuck (male both ends)

Materials:
iron
Object Number:
1935-634/4
type:
chuck
Wooden chuck with brass slider and 2 jaws fitted

Wooden chuck with brass slider and 2 jaws fitted

Wooden chuck with brass slider and 2 jaws fitted. Another brass slider to fit this chuck with a fixed central jaw and two moveable jaws and a spare jaw to fit one of these sliders

Materials:
wood (unidentifed) and brass
Object Number:
1935-634/5
type:
chuck
2 rosettes for the nose, face and edge of foot lathe

2 rosettes for the nose, face and edge of foot lathe

2 rosettes for the nose, face and edge. A further similar one is mounted on the lathe nose

Object Number:
1935-634/6
type:
rosettes
2 brass carriers for rubbers to work on rosettes on nose

2 brass carriers for rubbers to work on rosettes on nose

2 brass carriers for rubbers to work on rosettes on nose; each has 2 ivory touches, one broken. One has a steel binding screw. A steel bolt on which carriers are mounted

Materials:
brass and ivory
Object Number:
1935-634/7
type:
carriers
A barrel of 4 rosettes for nose, edge

A barrel of 4 rosettes for nose, edge

A barrel of 4 rosettes for nose, edge

Object Number:
1935-634/8
type:
barrel
Cast iron hand rest pedastal

Cast iron hand rest pedastal

Cast iron hand rest pedastal, made in cast iron and therefore may not belong

Materials:
cast iron
Object Number:
1935-634/9
type:
pedastal
Cast iron hand rest tee

Cast iron hand rest tee

Cast iron hand rest tee, made in cast iron and therefore may not belong

Materials:
cast iron
Object Number:
1935-634/10
type:
hand rest
Bolt, keeper and hand nut in wrought iron

Bolt, keeper and hand nut in wrought iron

Bolt, keeper and hand nut in wrought iron

Object Number:
1935-634/11
type:
bolt
Crude wooden prong chuck with iron point

Crude wooden prong chuck with iron point

Crude wooden prong chuck with iron point; a wooden chuck turned oval on face; a rough helix of stiff brass wire and a grindstone on spindle. A wooden tee to fit a hand rest pedestal

Materials:
wood and iron
Object Number:
1935-634/12
type:
chuck
Iron bolt with hooked end

Iron bolt with hooked end

Iron bolt with hooked end (use not known); a lantern pinion of brass discs and iron roundles (use not known) both may not belong

Object Number:
1935-634/13
type:
bolt
3 wooden workpieces or mandrels

3 wooden workpieces or mandrels

3 wooden workpieces or mandrels, one with a wire in it and a wooden column spirally turned

Materials:
wood
Object Number:
1935-634/14
type:
mandrel
10 slide rest cutters

10 slide rest cutters

10 slide rest cutters, Holtzapfel type, one of which is fitted into lathe slide rest

Object Number:
1935-634/15
type:
cutter
1 slide rest cutter made from a file and 3 hand chasers

1 slide rest cutter made from a file and 3 hand chasers

1 slide rest cutter made from a file and 3 hand chasers, without handles, which correspond to threads on the mandrel

Object Number:
1935-634/16
type:
cutter
Pusher pin with knob

Pusher pin with knob

Pusher pin with knob; 2 steel rubbers for rosettes and steel bridle clamp with screw and a spanner/podger

Object Number:
1935-634/17
type:
pin - fastener
Hand chaser for mandrel thread

Hand chaser for mandrel thread

Hand chaser for mandrel thread (tool loose in handle) and another hand tool forged from a triangular file (ferrule loose)

Object Number:
1935-634/18
type:
chaser
Disc with engine turning on one face

Disc with engine turning on one face

Ebony? disc, broken into two parts with engine turning on one face; perhaps once fitted into boxwood chuck on eccentric chuck /2

Object Number:
1935-634/19
type:
disc
A further hand rest pedastal for a dovetail-head bolt.

A further hand rest pedastal for a dovetail-head bolt.

A further hand rest pedastal for a dovetail-head bolt. The wooden tee, part of /12 fits this pedastal

Materials:
wooden
Object Number:
1935-634/20
type:
pedastal
Wooden turner's foot lathe

Wooden turner's foot lathe

Wooden turner's foot lathe, 17th or early 18th century, complete with tools and accessories

Object Number:
1935-634/21
type:
lathes
Wooden turner's foot lathe

Wooden turner's foot lathe

Wooden turner's foot lathe, 17th or early 18th century, complete with tools and accessories

Object Number:
1935-634/22
type:
lathes
Wooden turner's foot lathe

Wooden turner's foot lathe

Wooden turner's foot lathe, 17th or early 18th century, complete with tools and accessories

Object Number:
1935-634/23
type:
lathes

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