I bought a treadle or pedal powered watchmakers bench on facebook marketplace from a kind clockmaker.

The bench did not come with a lathe, so I planned to use my electric powered watchmakers lathe – just without the electric motor. I drilled holes about a 1/4 inch into the table to recess the feet of the lathe base and secure it.

Even though I had not given it a proper clean, I could not resist putting it all together to try it out. By coincidence, the belts matched my green lamp.

Later in the week I found a century-earlier ancestor of my machine, a treadle powered watchmakers lathe in the Dominy collection at the Winterthur Museum. That lathe is from the late 1700’s, mine is from the late 1800’s (well, my bench and treadle assembly dates to then, the lathe itself is post WWII)

I still needed to give my treadle assembly a proper clean. I removed the rust as best I could with evapo-rust, steel wool, and sandpaper.

I decided to paint the main pieces, so I masked off the areas I did not want to paint in preparation.

Brushed on rust-oleum primer.

And I finished it off with a glossy black topcoat. “Perfection”

To test it out, I wanted to use the machine to fix itself. I noticed that one of the posts that the countershaft turns on was worn down. In the following picture you can see how one side is very worn.

I took some measurements and came up with a plan to remake the post, which was just a friction fit into the larger piece.

Then me and the machine became one. I was assimilated.

It turned out pretty well, pun intended.