AI6YR BenOooh, found a book to purchase about converting treadles (and bicycles, etc.) into usable power for all sorts of devices. "The Human Powered Home" by Tamara Dean! #humanpower #treadle #bicycle #biketooter #engineering #solarpunk
Hmm, this book has a whole section about CONVERTING ELECTRIC SEWING MACHINES TO TREADLE MACHINES. (I guess that's one way to get a zigzag machine which works on a treadle!) #sewing #solarpunk
A Human-powered Bandsaw – At Boatbuilder Harry Bryan's shop
Human powered grinding wheel using a treadle!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTWSdmB1aJU&list=PLk7hdnVpKNjRQNtYN7BXpHh1Q_r-9nZJ9
Treadlestone Project
Zigzag sewing machine conversion to treadle
Zig-Zag Treadle Machine?! #vintage #sewing
Oh wow, that one will be easy to find. There are a lot of the belt driven zigzags out on the used market.
Steve@ai6yr my oldest sewing machine is electric but from before they redesigned them for motors; it’s a treadle machine with a motor bolted on… the opposite of your project, funny how things come and go
I guess easy to covert to treadle if I wanted to, though it doesn’t zigzag
Raven667@raven667 @ai6yr I guess it could be a case of “the future isn’t evenly distributed”
Depending on where and when it was sold, it may have had a treadle version in some parts of the world… mine (from the 1910s iirc maybe early 20s) was available in motor, treadle, and a hand rather than foot powered version, as well
Either way, converting to treadle is a distinct change in direction from what started around 100 years ago
Kinene⭐🐻@c_merriweather @ai6yr TBH I’m just using mine as a piece of furniture, it’s a nice cabinet, but it belonged to my great grandmother
This one was available in hand crank and treadle as well, when it was new 😆
@c_merriweather @ai6yr I have another one from the early 40s, and the cabinet is falling apart 😆 I think it just needs some wood glue, but it was never as nice as the older one
The cabinet may be newer, since the machine was made during the war, I don’t know they would have bothered with a wood cabinet at the time, but I guess it had to have some kind of stand
Norris Dale AC1LP@ai6yr
But I bet you'll find the pulley lines up fine with the treadle wheel, and the base will either fit or nearly fit the treadle base. Those series universal motors are crap, anyway.
#sewingmachine #treadleconversions #treadle
But I bet you'll find the pulley lines up fine with the treadle wheel, and the base will either fit or nearly fit the treadle base. Those series universal motors are crap, anyway.
#sewingmachine #treadleconversions #treadle
Emile Snyder
Sarah dreams of beans@ai6yr Love these examples. I am remembering a Montreal punk house that had a bicycle-powered blender built into their kitchen table
@ai6yr The source of this bike blender memory has been bugging me since I posted this, and I finally figured it out. If anybody else wants to see a musical documentary about mid-2000s dumpster diving that features a bike-powered blender operated by Alden Penner from The Unicorns (anyone?), behold Surfing the Waste:
Surfing the Waste: A Musical Documentary About Dumpster Diving
@stevewfolds@ai6yr “Chair bodgers” in England used foot powered lathes to turn parts for chairs
The last of them were 1950
BBC video (3:41)
1950: The CHAIR BODGERS of the CHILTERNS | Newsreel | World of Work | BBC Archive
glasspshrChair Bodgers is the name of my foot powered lathe tribute band!
Seriously though, nice work with such meager means
Jen@stevewfolds @ai6yr I had a go at bodging once.
There was some kind of event in the local park about 30 years ago and someone had built a traditional bodging lathe. They were demonstrating how it worked and letting people try. I got the basics pretty quickly, in part because I was used to Mum's old table Singer.
I don't think I've heard anyone use the word bodging in that context since.
There was some kind of event in the local park about 30 years ago and someone had built a traditional bodging lathe. They were demonstrating how it worked and letting people try. I got the basics pretty quickly, in part because I was used to Mum's old table Singer.
I don't think I've heard anyone use the word bodging in that context since.
@jetlagjen @ai6yr We assembled three legged stools in wood shop as kids, summer 1959. The legs were turned by shop teacher, my elementary school principal. Saw photos of chair bodgers in a wonderful book ~’73 (just ordered a copy :).
Sarah E Bourne@ai6yr The first grinding stone I remember was a treadle-powered one my uncle had. That thing could FLY! The actual trick was to get the precise, correct angle on what you were trying to sharpen. Get it wrong and you would have a lump of not-sharp metal.
Greg Whitehead@ai6yr do I have a show for you https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woodwright%27s_Shop
Jim Spath@grwster Ha. We just watched the "plane" episode on PBS.
Thomas Sibley@ai6yr my favorite human-powered bandsaw I’ve seen recently is the one with a bicycle mounted to it that you pedal to cut off your slab of beef ribs at the local farmer’s market
@ai6yr it’s got a cattle skull mounted to the back of it. I wish I could find the photo!
@ai6yr From the 1895 Montgomery Ward catalog (facsimile). Foot powered band saw, anyone?
Nazani@c_merriweather @ai6yr Why not; at the time there were foot powered sewing machines, potter's wheels, etc.
Terre Logsdon@c_merriweather @ai6yr Friends of mine bought an old Victorian in Alameda, CA. 20+ years ago. Unfinished dirt floor basement basement and still had this (or similar) in the basement as the house was constructed with it around it! They donated it to the Alameda City museum when they built out the basement several years ago.
Daniel Bohrer@ai6yr wow, this is cool!
Anne Ominouswow. but also wut
@ai6yr I love those sewing tables, my parents have one and it's very convenient to be able to fold the machine away and still use the workspace
Chris Nelder 🤘@ai6yr Not without incident...
"One of the cross beams has gone out askew on the treadle!" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0651001/
"One of the cross beams has gone out askew on the treadle!" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0651001/
Frank Skornia
ℒӱḏɩę 💾☮∞🎶♲☀🔋@ai6yr I had an exercise bike that I put a motor on the tire just like in that pic to generate power, which ran a little DC fan that blew on me. Faster I peddled, the more cool air I got!
The Book of Kels"One of the flay rods' gone out of skew on treadle"
Monty Python - Spanish Inquisition
petes_bread_eqn_xls@ai6yr surely a stationary bike would be more efficient to attach to a motor
@petes_bread_eqn_xls You'd be surprised... they are mostly internal mechanisms with not a lot of access. If you can use a bicycle you already have, you still have a usable bicycle!
HilaryIt's possible, of course.
My hunch is that a treadle+flywheel mechanism is a more sustainable way for a human to deliver mechanical energy. Rotary pedals work, obviously, as on a bicycle. But repeatedly pressing a treadle with a linear action strikes me as more natural/efficient.
And it's certainly an older, more established approach.
punIssuer
Olympic Cyclist Vs. Toaster: Can He Power It?
World famous track cyclist Robert Förstemann battles a 700w toaster. Can he, with his 74cm legs, generate enough energy to create a golden-brown toast? Pleas...
Matt Griffin@punissuer @ai6yr that was amazing! I thought those handlebars were going to snap right off.
omfg. this is awesome bc i showed my ex the treadle/modern sewing machine and he said 'I need a hand power microwave, so I can heat up my instant noodles like the settlers did' 🤣
dr2chase@punissuer @ai6yr and the body waste heat is 3x the work output -- over 2 kw of heat. Much-wimpier-me did 320 watts (estimated by weight-time-altitude increase) for a while getting cargo (daughter) up a hill, and I was drenched in sweat.
Larry Modell@ai6yr I like this, and we should start with home exercise machines, which are designed to *waste* power/energy, pretty much by definition.
Then we can move on to exercise machines at gyms!
@larrymodell Drives me nuts people are using electricity for home exercise machines.
Andrew Hewus Freshhttp://thegreenmicrogymbelmont.com/
> Equipped with retrofitted ellipticals and spin bikes that convert your energy to electricity and “plug out” into the building!
Enroll Now, No Risk Gym Membership | The Green Microgym Belmont
All gym memberships at the Green Microgym Belmont are month-to-month, there are no long-term contracts. There is no risk! You’ll have 5 days to cancel with a full refund if you’re not satisfied. Join as a couple and your initiation fee covers both of you—a $50 savings per person.
neville park@ai6yr many years ago at Detroit's Allied Media Conference there were some radio folks with a bicycle-powered radio transmitter (or something like that? I am not a radio person. all I know is you pedaled the bike and it made the radio go)
SupermoosiePeddle powered radio helped with isolation and allowed people to call for medical help in the remote Australian Outback.
https://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/news/how-alfred-traeger-gave-outback-its-voice/
How Alfred Traeger gave the outback its voice | Royal Flying Doctor Service
In the mid 1920’s Alfred Traeger invented the pedal powered radio, revolutionising communication in the outback. The invention was integral to the founding of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, but it wasn't his only invention and he was just as innovative at home as he was in his factory.
@SuperMoosie @nev Oooh, I need to look up that design!
Muro deGrizecointeresting history! thank you for posting about it!
Just BobStanding Rock had a bike generator but once the solar/wind started going up, no one wanted to ride it anymore 😂
Cristobal
spara
John Francis 🇨🇦🦫🍁💪⬆️@ai6yr a lot of treadles and bikes, but what about the hamster wheels for the little kids, and Conan wheels for the bigger kids?