Thread: foot powered bowl lathe vs electric which is fastest?

Nice one Robin! Thanks for the post.

Great job Robin

Excellent! I'm one of those people who are quite happy to use bowls, but have absolutely no idea where they come from

Pretty cool video Robin. What else have you got up your sleeve Oh - and welcome to the forum!

Very good video Robin look forward to the next one

Rippa

Good work, Robin.

It was interesting to see that the guy with the dangerously electric lathe was wearing full protective gear, and you seemed to have a t shirt on! Do you find foot powered lathes less dangerous?

I also note that you are thinner than your electron powered opponent, and that your lathe has very little embedded energy compared to the earth destroying machine!

Top one and welcome

now about the tools used I could see the other fellows easily enough but yours a bit harder to make out

Welcome to the site Robin.
Good to see the old ways can hold up in todays world.
Looking forward to seeing more of you'r work. I saw an article you did some time ago on the Mary Rose turned items. Good stuff.

Regards
John

Originally Posted by wheelinround

Top one and welcome

now about the tools used I could see the other fellows easily enough but yours a bit harder to make out

Have a look on his website wheelin, theres some good closeup pics

I can't help but wonder what the results would've been if you'd swapped lathes?

Thats pretty cool!

pretty cool video

Thanks for the comments, glad you enjoyed it, I gues you can see we did too. My tools are home made hook tools based on old designs I have seen in museums, there are some photos on my website if you are interested.

If we swopped lathes? I would loose...every so often at conferences someone thinks it will be fun to get the foot power turner to try the power lathe..normally on the biggest lathe around with the biggest lump of wood...I am always terified.

Is foot power safer? yes, if I have a big dig in it just stops.

Is it more eco freindly?...probably not really, we both drove to the site in our vans...five minutes in a car probably burns more fossil fuels than a day at the lathe. Both score over pottery bowls which take significant power to fire them.

I work this way because I find it very satisfying...I enjoy that when I stop I can hear the birds without having to switch my machines off first. I like the direct conection with the craftsmen down the ages who have worked this way and developed the techniques and also the direct connection with the wood, the tree and the forest where it grew things I would not feel if I bought kiln dried wood blanks.

Originally Posted by robin wood

Is it more eco freindly?...probably not really, we both drove to the site in our vans...five minutes in a car probably burns more fossil fuels than a day at the lathe. Both score over pottery bowls which take significant power to fire them.

I work this way because I find it very satisfying...I enjoy that when I stop I can hear the birds without having to switch my machines off first. I like the direct conection with the craftsmen down the ages who have worked this way and developed the techniques and also the direct connection with the wood, the tree and the forest where it grew things I would not feel if I bought kiln dried wood blanks.

It is much more eco friendly! To get an electric lathe to your door, before you switch it on, requires the extraction of large amounts of material from the earth (1 tonne of steel requires about 14 tonnes of ore, from memory). The ore then goes through an energy and water intensive process to turn it into steel, which is then transported to wherever its made in an oil powered ship, and then more energy is used to turn it into individual parts, and then much more energy is used to transport it to you.

Your homemade wooden lathe probably required a little oil to transport the wood to you, which you could overcome by using local wood. The materials are 100% renewable and to ensure your material use is material you just need to ensure that the product lasts longer than it took to grow the trees to produce it.

This is the main reason I'm interested in human powered tools. The other in your words is "I can hear the birds without having to switch my machines off first"