Shipe House Lathe

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This is the Shipe House in Hyde Park Austin ,originaly built in 1892 ,pictured here in 1981(I think)just before I started making the new posts ,balosters and spindles .The 4 columns and a couple of the posts were the only parts that had made it through the great depression .I made the patterns for all the balusters and spindles from old photos and a postcard .Later ,after it was done ,we were turning the old carrage house into a garage apartment and found a couple of the spindles in the dirt under the floor .They looked almost identical to the ones we made .

I had seen a picture in some tool book showing a lathe made by driving spikes through two trees and used as the head and tail stock centers with a log spinning on the points .I decided to go with the primitive and see if it would work .Check it out .

The smaller balosters and spindles were made on an old Shop Smith combo machine all done old school (no pattern follower) .

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