Send pics of the free lathe. Older lathes used belt and counter
pulley systems to control speed. Nowadays you can get a variable DC
or AC freq drive setup to vary the speed so all that pulley/belt
contraption stuff is no longer necessary.
You can turn wood on a metal lathe. The speeds required for turning
wood are much faster than metal but you can put a wood turning rest on
just about any metal lathe and do woodwork.
In all honesty the belt/pulley/counter pulley systems are not any more
dangerous than the lathe itself. You need proper attire and safety
equipment for all of them.
You can keep a lookout for people giving away or trashing old
treadmills. You can usually get a decent DC variable speed motor and
sometimes a usable controller from the treadmill and fit it to a
medium sized lathe with good results.
If you get in touch with local metalworking guys and/or clubs I'll bet
donuts that some old, retired machinist or toolmaker would be happy to
help you get set up and show you the ropes. If you're a teacher, look
up old shop teachers. For now, the we still have some good old time
manual machine operators with us.
Also, you will look at things differently. What used to look like
scrap will be valuable stock, especially round things.
MIT has some good videos. Here is a link to one:
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/172-machine-shop-10
Cheers,
Derf
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