This restoration is on an early 1900s W.F. and John Barnes Co. No. 5 velocipede screw lathe. James from the @WoodByWright YouTube channel came to my shop with two of these lathes; one for me and one for him. We both absolutely love the look of this lathe and he plans on using his frequently in his workshop.
The lathes were missing many parts and James had them re-cast while I did the machining on them. The lathes were both is better than expected condition for being over 100 years old. I decided to paint mine black which was consistent with the original japanning used for a finish on this lathe. If I had sorted out my cold-cure japanning recipe, then I would have loved to do japanning on this restoration. We only had three days together, so after we put primer on the parts, James had to leave.
James kept the only 3-jaw chuck, as he plans on using the lathe on a regular basis, so I had to do some test cuts using the old drill chuck. This was a poor choice and the cut quality was horrendous. Pedalling the lathe is actually pretty fun for about 25 seconds until you start cutting and you have to start pedalling with some serious force. This lathe could easily be converted to an electric powered one and it would make a pretty nice 11“ lathe.
I am not sure what to do with the lathe now as I really won’t use this over my other metal lathe! I had an amazing time with James and I hope to visit his shop one day as well.
You can see an advertisement for this lathe here:
I would like to thank Evapo-Rust for sponsoring this video.
Wrenches are now for sale at
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