Pedal Powered Lathe

[Debacle]

I have an old pedal powered lathe that I am looking at selling.

It was made by wf & j barnes in 1876.

Was converted to use a washing machine motor many years ago but most of the original parts are there except the chain, drive belt and steel rod to hold the seat up.

Does anyone know what something like this is worth or where you would go to sell it ?

It was given to me by my grandmother 25 years ago and was part of machinery from a business my father and grandfather had operating in the 50s/60s under their house.

Should be a straight forward restoration as long as you could get a suitable chain and drive belt made up, everything spins easily.

This isn't intended to be a for sale ad, just wondering if someone can let me know where to go to sell this. I have tried searching and there isn't any antique machinery type forums in Australia and don't want to put it on ebay
41783

41787

41789

41794

[VladTepes]

John I have taken the liberty of reposting this on another forum. (A firearms forum where there are all sorts of people into clever machinery type stuff).

What type of business was this used in?

You don't happen to have the pics hosted on photobucket or somewhere do you as i dont think hotklinks to aulro attachments work.

[UncleHo]

PM sent:D

[wrinklearthur]

Hi John

Fascinating things, I saw one of those lathes years ago at the home of an old uncle of my mothers.

Old Percival Partington, had a little Austin car which only just fitted over his pit in his garage, to drive the car in and not tip it into the pit, he had a tennis ball on a string placed so that when the car was parked correctly, the ball touched the bonnet emblem.

The next thing to be shown to me, was his collection of hand wood working tools and under the shelves he had rows of screw top glass jars full of nails , nuts and bolts, they had the tops screwed up under the shelf.

On to the lathe and old Percy asked me to show him the switch, of course I couldn't as it didn't have one, so with a flourish he moved the cover from the bed revealing a treadle mechanism and demonstrated the lathe working, explaining, "It works with leg-tricity".

.

[Debacle]

John I have taken the liberty of reposting this on another forum. (A firearms forum where there are all sorts of people into clever machinery type stuff).

What type of business was this used in?

You don't happen to have the pics hosted on photobucket or somewhere do you as i dont think hotklinks to aulro attachments work.

OK sorry, didn't realise the pics came out so small, try this.

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/debacle1966/19122011036.jpg
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/debacle1966/19122011035.jpg
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/debacle1966/19122011034.jpg
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/debacle1966/19122011033.jpg
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/debacle1966/19122011032.jpg
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/debacle1966/19122011029.jpg
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/debacle1966/19122011028.jpg

[Hymie]

What a beautiful piece of machinery. I can imagine them being still in use in the third world.
The TATA factory probably has thousands of them punching out parts.

[Bigbjorn]

There is a Model Engineers magazine and TOMM The Old Machinery Magazine. TOMM has a busy website. Can you provide pictures larger than a postage stamp?

Treadle lathes are purely a curiosity. I doubt if you get get very much for it unless there are a few collectors who might compete with each other. Try e-bay.

[VladTepes]

There is a pedal powered one in the Lithgow Gun Museum. Very solid and nice bit of gear. from that other forum.

[VladTepes]

someone else said



This is an auction site for old traps and other stuff, they may help

TRAPSWAP.NET Live Online Auction - Auctions (http://www.trapswap.net/auction/cgi-bin/auction/auction.pl)

[VladTepes]

Debacle...



there is a couple of blokes in here that would know ............. WOODTURNING - GENERAL - Woodwork Forums (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/)

dont think they are super rare cos there is a few blokes using them , but having said that there would not be a hell of a lot of them around thats for sure .

[UncleHo]

There is a gent that lives in S.E.Qld that can often be seen at swap meets with a pedal powed lathe,which he can turn up light metal objects, BTW the lathe operates by pedalling backwards/reverse to powered units :)

Brian Hjelm would know of this gent,"Barefoot Charlie" ;)


cheers

[isuzutoo-eh]

Most would have been electrically powered by now. My watchmaker's lathe from the 30s was pedal powered but now has a sewing machine motor on a leather belt.
I love the old machines, they had elegance that is sorely lacking in similar products today.

[Bigbjorn]

That style of wood turning lathe was commonly seen in small joinery and cabinet makers works in the days when one had small local businesses of those kinds. When I was a lad and teenager in the fifties I saw a few of them. The headstock, tailstock, tool rest and drive train could be bought separately from one of the engineering suppliers like McPhersons. The joiners would grab a couple of pieces of timber and make up a bed and legs. This is obviously what happened in the above photos. A couple of bits of used timber were found.