19th Century German Lathe in Minnesota

comments (2) June 16th, 2010 in blogs

woodheat Roland Johnson, contributor
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I had the pleasure of getting a close look at a 19th Century German lathe today.  The owner's great grandfather brought the lathe with him when he emmigrated to the US in 1843.  It's a treadle lathe and was in constant use through WWII, then disassembled and put into storage for decades.  Recently the family reassembled the lathe and asked me to take a look at it. Wow, it's pretty impressive.  A day spent spinning that flywheel with leg power would be a workout.  A butt board is attached to the frame to lean against while pedaling and turning. 

Check out the wedged through mortise-and-tenons holding the frame together.  The lathe timbers appear to be mahogany with a few later add-ons in white oak.  The dimensions are 6-1/2 feet wide, 8 feet long, and 7 feet high. 

Any of you turners every run across something similar?  This is the largest treadle lathe I've ever seen. 

Sorry about the quality of the photos, but you get the idea.  


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Comments (2)

frankcello frankcello writes: Now that's pretty neat. Where did you find that? Is somebody using it, or is it on display somewhere?
Posted: 11:16 am on August 10th

GEide GEide writes: Holy moly. That's huge! How'd he fit it on the boat? Did they use it for furniture making? -Gina
Posted: 11:29 am on June 17th

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