Building a Dominy Springpole Lathe

Last fall I had the joy of spending a couple hours in the Dominy shop at Winturtur to measure their Springpole Lathe. I’ve finally started building a copy of it, for use in the book on early 19th Century chairmaking that I’m writing. A local sawmill gave me a pine beam that was in their firewood pile and I’m off to the races:

The Dominys clearly had some issues with their bed design, which is contrary to most published designs of the era, and which has cracked. I’m going to copy their design anyways.

The wood had some beetle damage, and they could be still living in my lathe, so I’ll need to spray the timbers down with Boracare.

I’m making two beds, one the original 6′ length and another one 3′ that will fit in my shop better.

More soon!