Hand Cranked Grinding Wheel Treadle Conversion

[FortyTwoBlades]

I've talked about this for a while but finally got around to doing it. Our last shipment of Italian tools had a hand-turned grinder in it that had a void in the side of the wheel near the edge, which had been patched with a clay-like putty. Totally unsalable, so I decided to use it as a demo piece for converting it to treadle power. I'll be making a few small tweaks to the arrangement in future, but it's in solid working order as is.

[video=youtube;GQ8FvzplhFE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ8FvzplhFE&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[300Six]

Good for you! It's entirely fitting that manually-operated tools be serviced and maintained by manually-operated saws, files, grinders, sanders and the like.

 

[Lieblad]

mkijmng.

 

[garry3]

That's great! I love treadle power.

Lieblad, if you are in Idaho I know where there are stones.

 

[Square_peg]

Nicely done. You got talent, my friend.

So there's a bar spanning between the two outer 2x4's and the treadle just acts on the bar. Is that right? Clever design.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Yup! Two linked 2x4's hinged and connected to the tie rod, with a bent steel rod forming a pivoting "saddle" for the pedal 2x4, allowing it to slide along the length. The way the tie rod converts the circular motion into vertical motion means that adding a solid hinge for the pedal would have made it want to slide forward and backward, so the saddle bar allows the pedal to float in a fixed position while the saddle slides along it. Kind of made that up as I went along.