Tool Talk
Woodworking Forum => Woodworking Forum => Topic started by: wrenchguy on January 09, 2012, 08:37:22 PM
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If ok I'm offering a reward for this machines i.d. whether diy or shop made. Advertising it as DIY should be out there.
thanks 4 any help.
This was originally posted jan/2012 and i thought it'd be ok to bring it up again with the new members having a crack at it. thanks 4 looking and any comments.
I've posted this on couple sites with no luck with company of manufacture. Finely made with doweled mortise and tenons, nice clean cast iron parts. A 26" diameter uniquely spoked flywheel that drives a punched leather flat belt with old white rubber pedals. It appears tobe missing the seat framing/stand. The table is 50" off the floor. I hoping someone may have hardware house catalog or woodworking magazine ad collection that might show it. thanks for any help
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n210/wrenchguy49/P7110734.jpg)
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n210/wrenchguy49/P7110730.jpg)
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n210/wrenchguy49/P7110732.jpg)
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n210/wrenchguy49/P7110729.jpg)
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That is cool.
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I've never seen one like this but it's pretty cool and looks like it could be cleaned up and in working order with out to much fuss.
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Just think you could have fun making something, and saving money by not needing to join a fitness center.
Ray
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Just think you could have fun making something, and saving money by not needing to join a fitness center.
Ray
That's about the only sort of exercise that interests me. And it doesn't require spandex!
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I think this is the best I've ever seen.
I also think if you copied it and made 20 more just like it, set them up someplace, you could charge by the hour and become rich.
People are morons to pay to waste their energy in gyms.
Me, I expect something to show for my sweat!
yours Scott
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Saw wood, pump iron. Nice.
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After looking at quite a lot of pictures, I have come to the conclusion that I don't have even a vague guess who might have made it. The use of bicycle type pedals on that kind of a saw is almost unheard of in the US, all the major makers were using lever/crankshaft type foot power for scroll/fret saws. The rocker arm is also very odd, no one used a split design like that that i can find, generally that would be the first hint, as everyone had their idea of the way to make that easily failing part better than everyone else, but yours is different than anything I have seen so far......
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This is the closest of anything I've seen to that saw. This is treadle powered, to a cast iron flywheel then by leather belt to a cam operating the oscillating saw arms. Very certain it is commercially made, but no name shows up in my pics. Not mine, saw it at a flea. I will mention that the white rubber pads on the pedals probably dates it pre-1910. At least pre-1915. A very interesting saw, all you need is a stool of the right heigth, get comfy and pedal.
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This is the only vaguely similar pedal powered saw I found, but it's metal framed....
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Thanks for your comments. I'll post some more closeup photos if asked. Did anyone catch the whittled twig oil cup plugs on the flywheel axle. There are some on the upper axle too. It is in its original red paint. I think the seat frame got taken off because of its size being attached to the saw, removed/separated, sold at sale/auction and lost forever. I say this because the piece hanging down touching the flywheel shows no marks on it from flywheel rotation. Then never used since. if i ever get to it i'm going to conserve what i got and display/use it. u guys got any idea about the punched flat belt i'll need. I agree about the white rubber pedals dating it. Thanks for any help.
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Leather belting, well you can take the cheap route and find appropriate sized leather belts at a thrift, and punch holes where needed. Sew the belts together, after you chamfer the ends of the belts. Or you can find a harness maker, and have a belt made up, since harness/bridles have buckles he will have a good leather punch already. I believe you are right about the board hanging down, most likely was part of the seat assembly. Somewhere I have pics of a whole set of the all cast iron pedal power tools.
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Here is an interesting site. Shows lots of Pedal Saws, but not this one.
http://www.scrollsaws.com/SawCollection/SawsFoot.html (http://www.scrollsaws.com/SawCollection/SawsFoot.html)
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Who knew there were so many? Years ago, I bought a New Rogers at a flea market. It had been motorized and the treadle and wheel are missing. If I could ever find the missing parts I'd like to return it to its original configuration. The site says 1860s; I had thought the New Rogers were decades later.
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Here is an interesting version. A little bit pricey.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Treadle-Woodworking-Combination-Machine-Lathe-Scrollsaw-Table-Saw-/230728283307?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35b87a34ab (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Treadle-Woodworking-Combination-Machine-Lathe-Scrollsaw-Table-Saw-/230728283307?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35b87a34ab)
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Here is an interesting version. A little bit pricey.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Treadle-Woodworking-Combination-Machine-Lathe-Scrollsaw-Table-Saw-/230728283307?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35b87a34ab (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Treadle-Woodworking-Combination-Machine-Lathe-Scrollsaw-Table-Saw-/230728283307?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35b87a34ab)
It's the first ShopSmith!!!
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A couple of random thoughts here. The braces on this saw look very much like the braces used on some of the old wood wheel barrows, and the red color of the paint is consistent with many of these barrows. One might look into manufacturers of wheel barrows, who might have made other tools.
I also notice that the peddles look like actual bicycle peddles, and wonder if they weren't made by a bicycle manufacturer -- the early bicycles, post great wheel bikes, had numerous wooden components, including the peddle proper and the wheels. These might have been parts bought by the saw manufacturer from a bike maker./
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Ditto, another thing I notice here, the cranks are seperate pieces. This was normal for great wheel bicycles because the through shaft had to be seperate, the cranks were attached after. Some time after sprockets , manufacturers started using single forged shafts that included the crank part.....
If the pedals are after the start of the sprocket era, they aren't long after...
>the red color of the paint is consistent with many of these barrows
Unfortunatly, it is also consistant with a lot of wood farm machinery....
One of the hardest things to find information on is the color of old machines, the photographs, if you are lucky enough to have one, and not an engraving, are generally black and white, and it doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone that 100 years later we might wonder what color was that thing anyhow?
Do the pedals have ball bearings in them?
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I emailed a link to this post to the guy with the pedal saw collection that I posted above. He had no idea who made it, but thought it was really cool.
Wrenchguy, where are you located. The were hundreds, if not thousands of small manufacturers and most of their sales were regional. You might want to spend some time at your public library or historical society. Is there an annual thresheree in the neighborhood? Putting it on display would be fun too. Your state historical society may be of some help too. Unless some picker hauled it in before you got it, I'll bet it was made within a hundred miles of you.
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The pedals do have bearings, yea i know there were hundreds making 'em, but this one has tobe of potential high volume company with these finely cast parts. these had to patterned up for large quantities. I think this is what happened, This contractor for maybe sears or monkywards and or larger hardware houses got started making some and then electric motors came onto the market, pedal power slowly dies and became obsolete. Made of wood it didn't last left to rot, not like most of the others were made of cast iron and not this big. I don't have time for running around doing library research. Thats what the internet is for. Thanks for all your comments, the quest continues. I'm located in nw indiana, if in the area stop by and we could hoist a couple and kick something laying around here.
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Ditto, another thing I notice here, the cranks are seperate pieces. This was normal for great wheel bicycles because the through shaft had to be seperate, the cranks were attached after. Some time after sprockets , manufacturers started using single forged shafts that included the crank part.....
If the pedals are after the start of the sprocket era, they aren't long after...
>the red color of the paint is consistent with many of these barrows
Unfortunatly, it is also consistant with a lot of wood farm machinery....
One of the hardest things to find information on is the color of old machines, the photographs, if you are lucky enough to have one, and not an engraving, are generally black and white, and it doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone that 100 years later we might wonder what color was that thing anyhow?
Do the pedals have ball bearings in them?
The better bikes are still made with the cranks separate from the shaft. But the wood pads on the peddles are probably significant.
I know that red paint was consistent with a lot of wood farm machinery, but not the only color. There was a rather nasty shade of orange used
on some. I think red was somewhat more common among the wheel barrows. It was Monkey Wards' favorite wheel barrow color from what I've seen.
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The crank ends and pedals are pretty ordinary. The cranks are exactly the same as nearly all 10 speeds and the pedals? Well I have some white pedals just like them NOS from the 50's or 60's, still in the bag.
What is not usual is that wheel. That is no part of a bicycle or wheelbarrow wheel. If you pinned down the wheel you'd have the time and place.
I am pretty sure the droopy wood brace on the front went to the seat carriage. If you straighten it out, its just about the right height.
yours Scott
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You guys do realize the wheel is cast iron (flywheel) my guess weighing 40/50 lbs. Its unique to this machine and part of the cast iron parts package. What we think as part of the seat carriage held level is 38" off the floor. One would need a stool or ladder to get on that thing. The table is 50" up off the floor. Someone pm'd me about thinking that this was built for factory production work and not really available to private hobbiest. Most castiron framed ones i seen look tobe on the small side and somewhat lightweight for production work. The quest continues.
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Where did you but it? My family has a house in Moneta, Va.... at this tiny antique store in the middle of nowhere, I saw a "pedal powered" jigsaw.... looked somewhat like that..... Each summer I went to the little store. Year after year it was still there. I felt like a little kid who passed by the same store window every day..... it had the toy gun he always wanted....
Eventually, it sold. I suppose that is good; I don't know how many more years I could "hold out" before I bought it!!!!! I wound up becoming good friends with the guy who owned the store. I've found a lot of elderly, lonely, bored ... some combination... own antique stores. So, it's no surprise I talk with them for hours! And it's no surprise that I'm always happy to see them!
Well, I better shut up.... although, I'll have to write about antique stores under "general discussion" ...
cheers,
bird
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I got it at a east central illinois tractor show swap meet. thanks
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bumped for any new members that might know about it. thanks.
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To me it looks like a shop or farmer made from part of a old saw and more modern stuff depression era. We could pick it apart piece by piece, I have a few pedal and treadle tools around here, when I'm in better working order been known to make parts for them. I've got pics of them on the net somewhere? 2 am and back spams mind isn't 100% hope I didn't time out looking for them.
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/exak576j7cxeq/Pedal%20n%20treadle%20machines
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No idea who made it, but I'll echo the thoughts of others and say that its about the neatest thing I've seen in a long time.
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Has anyone searched old Popular Mechanics, or Mechanix Illustrated issues for something similar?
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To me it looks like a shop or farmer made from part of a old saw and more modern stuff depression era. We could pick it apart piece by piece, I have a few pedal and treadle tools around here, when I'm in better working order been known to make parts for them. I've got pics of them on the net somewhere? 2 am and back spams mind isn't 100% hope I didn't time out looking for them.
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/exak576j7cxeq/Pedal%20n%20treadle%20machines
I agree It is possibly home made. 19th century.
Manufacturing used jig saws in aviation a lot. I think your saw predates flight.
Chilly
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****11-16-16, Bumped up for any new members that might know about it. thanks.*****
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bump for reward offered if ok.
thanks.