Yesterday, I went up to the Fort at #4 to pick up Allyson and to play with the Lathe.
This time I took my chisels and was better prepared. I also took along some grease.
With a bit of patience, I got the lathe belted back up. About that time, Allyson arrived. She took on the task of pumping.
Since I brought up some grease, I was prepared to liberate some wear points. But, I was so excited, I just didn’t.
It took us a few tries, but we finally go things moving, and I was able to make chips. The squarish thing is slowly becoming round.
I checked the drive, and it was getting warm/hot. I stopped to get some grease into place. That seemed to have made a difference.
With that, I could try, try again. I could get it spinning. I can’t keep it spinning as I lose coordination. But for the time it is spinning, I was able to make wood chips.
I hope you notice the 2A shirt and the Kimber 1911 on my right hip.
Comments
6 responses to “Turn about is fair play”
kewl!
With practice, coordination will develop. Just like learning to shoot!
Seems like a flywheel is in order.
I hope you are yanking my chain. Grin The wheel I’ve been writing about is the flywheel for that lathe.
I thought that wheel was the pulley? I was referring to just a rotating mass to carry the inertia.
I will get some pictures.
The lathe is powered by a treadle, the treadle drives the main wheel, which is also the fly wheel.
The fly wheel is 44 inches in diameter, it uses a flat belt to drive a wooden wheel attached to the lathe spindle. There is around a 9 or 10 to one speed increase.
The issue I am currently working on is friction loss. Some of that is in the axles and treadle, some of it is in the spindle, some of it is in the treadle foot rod rubbing. All in all, there is room for improvement.
The gigantic improvement is the flat belt now stays on the wheels.