Over the past few weeks I've been helping the guys at Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk build a pole lathe. But one with a bit of a difference; the legs are rooted into the ground! Here's a few pictures of Oxburgh's first addition to their new green woodworking area.
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| The 'rooted' ash pole lathe legs |
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| Cutting out the lathe bed, ash again. |
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| Measuring up the tenons on the top of the legs |
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| Cutting the tenons |
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| Lathe bed seems to sit fairly level upon the legs. It's quite sturdy at the moment but we may have to add some wedges. |
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| Splitting the stocks or 'poppets' from a large oak log. |
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| One half of the log, a bit of rot can be seen inside the log now that it's been split. We cut this rot out in the end. |
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| Shaping the poppets |
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| A slot is required in each poppet for a wedge to be driven into; this pulls the poppet hard down onto the lathe bed. Here I'm using a brace and bit to remove most of the material for the slot. |
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| The pole lathe so far. It's pretty heavy weight and with those rooted legs it's definitely not going to be wobbling about! We've been joking that we'll have to prune the legs every so often as they re-sprout! |
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| A conveniently grown ash sapling is located perfectly in front of our new lathe. This lathe certainly isn't portable. |