> Love to hear more about your treadle tools, any advice of shopping
> for/restoring same.

Great to hear others with enthusiasm for these. The R&D that went on in
the late 19th century to create treadle tools has been squandered and
lost. Efficiently transferring human power to a useful machine is a
fascinating topic. I'm new to it, but I sense a powerful object lesson
for America today: it's somewhat analogous to pedalling a bicycle
through a traffic jam of SUV's. I'll work on that metaphor.

I have a Seneca Falls Union #5 table saw in usable condition. Found it
by sheer accident: a guy who responded to my ad on ToolTimer said he had
driven through a small town in western Illinois and stumbled upon an old
man with an antique shop and massive tool collection, including some
treadle tools. Old man not on net, corresponded by mail. Drove out and
got the saw, couldn't afford the treadle metal lathe (mint condition)
and various other ones. All since sold at an auction near Chicago.

Also have a mostly-wood mortiser, bought from the great folks at
American Artifacts.

I am certainly in the market for more--particularly looking for a
hand-operated tenoning machine. Where to find them? Short of spending
all day surfing the net, I just hope that when one comes up for sale
somewhere, I'll get lucky and stumble across it.

Restoring? Where I am, there's still enough old machinists/welders that
most repairs and simple part fabrication can be done in a guy's garage
down the street in exchange for a case of beer. Repouring babbitts is
something I'll eventually try myself. Also would like to explore
possibility of making copies of more complex parts--actually casting
them from new molds.