Hand-pumped Bow Lathes

A"Turn Bench" from Joseph Moxon's Mechnick Exercises, 1680.

"Small work in Mettal is Turned in a Iron Lathe called a Turn -bench... When they use it they screw it in the Chaps of a Vice, and having fitted their Work upon a small Iron Axis, with a Drill Barrel fitted upon a square Shank at the end of the Axis next the left hand, they with a Drill-bow and Drill-string carry it about."-Joseph Moxon's Mechnick Exercises

A clockmaker's lathe
made of brass and driven by a bow. Scanned from: Country Furniture, by Aldren A Watson. Lyons & Burford, publishers.

Watchmaker's Bow Turn & Case
Circa late 1700's. Scanned from "With Hammer in Hand, The Dominy Craftsmen of East Hampton, New York" by Charles Hummel, 1968.

Watchmaker's lathe
A watchmakers turn with elaborate etching decorating it. Scanned from .

My antique watchmaker's, or jeweler's lathe mounted in a tiny bench vice.

The centers from my watchmaker's lathe showing the slots cut in the center points.

See also the "turn-bench" I built inspired by the illustrations above.