Common features of the Lathe tool

There are many varieties of lathes used widely for industrial as well as indoor purposes. But every lathe has some common features. A stand for a lathe is not common for all lathe types. There are lathes without legs or stand, which can be fitted on the floor. The height of the lathe bed will be suitable for working. Some small lathes are suitable to place on a work bench or table. These types of lathes usually do not require any stand.

The ‘bed” is almost kept horizontal in all lathes except in some CNC lathes in which bed is kept as a vertical beam to make the chips or swarf to fall freely while working. “Head stock” is kept usually on the left end of the bed and it contains spinning bearings for high precision cuttings. This end is where the operator faces the lathe while working on it. Spindle is an axis parallel to the bed, which is usually hollow. This spindle is the one which rotates within the bearings. There is an interior Morse taper or exterior thread on the “inboard” of the spindle, which helps to hold the working material being placed on the spindle with the help of accessories. It is always facing towards the bed of lathe. Spindles may also contain exterior threads on the “outboard’ end, hand wheels or other accessories or mechanisms. Spindles are powered to the maximum, for the excellent movement of work piece.

Spindle is operated by power from flywheel and treadle by a foot. The other method of operation is by using a belt drive connected to a power source. The power source is an electric motor and it forms an integral part of modern lathes. It is usually fitted in the headstock or beside the headstock. There is a re-lockable loose head placed suitably on the bed, which contain a non rotating barrel. It can slide in a parallel fashion to the axis of the bed. It may contain some accessories for the firm gripping of various tools. It is usually hollow.

The “cross slide” is a flat piece of material sits on the bed in metal working lathes. It removes the material for cutting from the working piece by a cutting tool. Some lathes contains lead screw to move the cross side to the length of the bed. Metal spinning and woodturning lathes do not contain cross slides. They have “banjos” instead of cross slide. The position of banjos is changeable by hand. The tool post and tool rest are the two parts of banjos.

There are some accessories connected to lathes for better functioning. A face plate is a flat plate used to mount the work piece. Like wise faceplate dogs are used to protect the work on work plate. The work piece can directly mount on a mandrel using a three or four jaw chuck. Collect is used to hold the work piece in precision important works. It is used to hold cylindrical work pieces. There are other collects for holding work materials of different shapes. A spur drive is another accessory to hold soft work piece at the headstock.