[Artemisia] cordage for spring pole lathes

[Michael the Loud]

> I looked up the spring pole lathes used at colonial
> williamsburg in my woodwrites work book and others
> writen by Roy Underhill. thay show two types.  the
> most common is good old sisle"hemp" rope. True
> hemp rope is no longer readly had here in the USA
> but Sisle rope is.try to find a tight twist rope .
> the smother the rope is the smother it runs . If you
> want to make your own buy a spool of bailing twine
> and you can twist all you will ever need and make
> your own sizes and lengths.

The first springpole lathe I made was from the plans
that Roy Underhill E-mailed me.  It's a great lathe as
it can easily be disassembled and can be made rather
inexpensively.  Here are a few things I learned.

1) The version that Roy uses on his show was made from
   11" pine that he ripped into 7" and 4" boards.  
   Back east pine is OK because you have humidity.  I
   found that Redwood works better here in Utah.  Use
   2"x10" and 2"x6" boards and rip them down to get
   your 7" and 4" boards.  Redwood is great for a
   garage shop!

2) Add some wax to the areas that the rope connects
   to the treddle arm.  Be very liberal hitting the
   entire section that the rope touchs with wax as
   this gives you a smoother action.  

3) The greener the wood the better.  This lathe
   doesn't have the power if you are using a tree or
   mounting your springs on a roof.  

4) If you need more cutting power you can hang a
   couple of pulleys from your garage rafters and
   attach some steel cable to the rope and add weight
   to act as a spring.  You'll wear out your leg but
   you can actually add enough weight to cut dry wood.
   (Just make sure you add some padding below the
    weight because the clank-clank-clank gets
    annoying)  

   You can also use the platform to attach the rope
   to an overhanging tree branch.  Just make sure you
   don't attach the rope to tree with overhanging
   fruit or pine cones (A STUPID MISTAKE I MADE.)

Nice thing about the Roy Underhill lathe is it's easy
to make with a minimum of tools.  Probably can be made
between $30 - $50 and made by most people a few hours
(The real expense is cutting tools.)  

Michael




 
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