3

THE LATHE

3.1 INTRODUCTION
The lathe is one of the oldest machine tools and
came into existence from
the early tree lathe which was then a novel
device for
machining apieçe of work held between two adjacent trees. Arotating and
round the work with its one end attached to a flexible branch ofrope wound
a tree and
the other end being pulled by aman caused the job to
Hand tools were then used. With its further developmentrotate intermittently.
a strip of wood
called"lath" was used to support the rope and that is how the machine
came to be known as "lathe". This device continued to develop
through
centuries and in the year 1797 Henry Maudslay, an Englishman, designed
the first screw cutting lathe which is the forerunner of the present day
high
speed, heavy duty production lathe, a machine tool which has practically
given shape to our present day civilization by building machines and
industries.

3.2 FUNCTION OF THELATHE

The main function of a athe is to remove metal from a piece of work to

give it the required shape and size.- This is accomplished by holding the
work securely and rigidly on the machine and then turning it against cutting
tool which willremove metal from the work in the form of chips. To cut the
material properly the tool should be harder than the material of the
workpiece, should be rigidly held on the machine and should be fed or
progressed in a definite way relative to the work.
33 TYPES OF LATHE

Lathes of various designs and constructions have been developed to suit the
various conditions of metal machining. But all of them employ the same
fundamental principle of operation and perform the same function.
 84 ELEMENTSOF WORKSHOP TECHNOLOGY

The types generally used are:

3. Bench lathe.
1. Speed lathe. 4. Tool room lathe.
(a) -Wood working. 5. Capstan and Turret lathe
(b) Centering.
(c) Polishing.
6. Spccial purpose.
(a) Wheel lathe.
(d) Spinning. (b) Gap bed lathe.
2. Engine lathe. (c) T-lathe.
(a) Belt drive.
(d) Duplicating lathe.
(b) Individual motor drive. 7. Automatic lathe.
(c) Gear head lathe.
and operation, is the
The Speed Lathe: The speed lathe, in construction headstock, a tailstock
simplest of all types of lathe. It consists of a bed, a
There is no feed boy
and a tool-post mounted on an adjustable slide. on the
leadscrew or conventional type of carriage. The tool is mounted
This
adjustable slide and is fed into work purely by hand control.
characteristic of the lathe enables the designer to give high spindle speeds
controlled by
which usually range from 1200 to 3600 r.p.m. As the tool is
small.
hand, the depth of cutand the thickness of chip isvery
The headstock construction is very simple and only two or three
necessitate the use
spindle speeds are available. Light cuts and high speeds in
minimum such as
of this type of machine where cutting force is
"speed lathe" has
woodworking, spinning, centering, polishing, etc. Theheadstock spindle.
been so named because of the very high speed of the
important
The engine lathe or centre lathe : This lathe is the most "engine"
member of the lathe family and is the most widely used. The term
lathes were driven
is associated with the lathe owing to the fact that early
lathe has got all the
by steam engines. Similar to the speed lathe, the engine headstock of an
the
basic parts, e.g. bed, headstock, and tailstock. But contains additional
it
engine lathe is much more robust in construction and
the
mechanism for driving the lathe spindle at multiple speeds. Unlike
in cross and
speed lathe, the engine lathe can feed the cutting tool both help of a
longitudinal direction with reference to the lathe axis with the
carriage, feed rod and leadscrew. With these additional features an engine
lathe has proved to be a versatile machine adapted for every type of lathe
work.
Engine lathes are classified according to the various designs of the
headstock and methods of transmitting power to the machine. A lathe that
receives its power from an over-head line shaft is a belt-driven lathe and iS
equipped with a speed-cone and one or more back gears to get a wide rang"
 THE LATHE 85

of spindle speeds. A lathe that roceives its power from an individual motor
integral with the machine is called a motor driven lathe. A geared-head
lathe gets its power from a constant specd motor, and all speed changes
are obtained by shifting various gears located in the headstock. It has no
Cone pulley.
The bench lathe : This is a small lathe usually mounted on a bench. It has
practically all the parts of an engine lathe or speed lathe and it performs
almost all the operations, its only difference being in the size. This is used
for small and precision work

The tool room lathe : A tool room lathe having features similar to an
engine lathe is much more accurately built and has a wide range of spindle
speeds ranging from avery low to aquite high speed up to 2500 r.p.m. This
is equipped, besides other things, with achuck, taper türning attachment.,.
draw in collet attachment,thread chasing dial, relieving attachment, steady
and follower rest, pump for coolant, etc. This lathe is mainly used for
precision work on tools, dies, gauges and in machining work where
accuracy is needed. The machine is costlier than an engine lathe of the
same size.

The capstan and turret lathe : These lathes are development of the
engine lathe and are used for production [Link] distinguishing feature
of this type of lathe is that the tailstock of an engine lathe is replaced by a
hexagonal turret, on the face of which multiple tools may be fitted and fed
into the work in proper sequence. The advantage is that several different
types of operations can be done on a workpiece without re-setting of work
or tools, and a number of identicalparts can be produced in the minimum.
time.

Specil purpose lathe : As the name implies, they are used for special
purposes and for jobs which cannot be accommodated or conveniently
machined ßn a standard Jathe. The wheel lathe is made for finishing the
jounals and tuming the tread on railroad car and locomotive wheels. The
gap bed lathe, in which a section of the bed adjacent to the headstock is
recoverable, is used to swing extra-large diameter pieces. The T-lathe, a
new member of the lathe family, is intended for machining of rotors for jet
engines. The axis of the lathe bed is at right angles to the axis of the
headstock spindle is the form of a T. The duplicating lathe is one for
duplicating the shape of a flat or round template on to the workpicve.
Mechanical, air, and hydraulic devices are all used to coordinate the
movements of the tool to reproduce accurately the shape of the template.
86 ELEMENTS OF WORKSHOP TECHNOL00Y

The missile lathe, which has a very large swing for accommodating
missile cDmponcnt of very lange diamcter, is the most modern and latest in long
lathe design.
Automatic lathe : Thesc are high spccd, hcavy duty, mass
lathes with complete automatic control. Once the tools are set and the production
machinc is started it performs automatically all the operations to finisk
done
job. The changing of tools, specds, and feeds are also
automatically.
After the job is complete, the machine will continue to repcat the cycles
producing identical parts even without the attention of an operator. An
operator who has to look after five or six automatic lathes at a time will
simply look after the general maintenance of the machine and cutting tool,
load up a bar stock and remove finished products from time to time.
THE SIZE OF ALATHE

The size of alathe is expressed or specified by the following items and

illustrated in Fig.3.1:
1. The height of the centres
measured from the lathe
bed.
2. The Swing diameter over
bed. This is the largest
diameter of work that will
revolve without touching
the bed and is twice the
height of the centre
measured from the bed of
(a) the lathe.

(b)
Figure 3.1 Lathe size
(a) D. Swing diameter over bed, D,. Swing diameter over carriage.
(b) L. Length between centres
Main driving pulley Head stock
Driving clutch Clamp
control lever

Gear box Tailstock

Live centre Dead centre
Ram
Controls

Thread dial
Tool post slide
Cross slide Rack
Tailstock base
Cross side
Feed box
handwheel,

Screw cutting engageLead screw

Reverse for
Bed sliding &
surtacing Feed rod

Studs tray Hand traversing wheel Feed engage Carriage

Studs sump

LATHETHE

Figure 3.2 Lathe parts 87

 88 ELEMENTS OF WORKSHOP TECHNOLOGY

3. The length between centres. This is the maximum length of wor

that can be mounted between the lathe centres.
4. The swing diameter over carriage. This is the largest diameter of
work that will revolve over the lathe saddle, and is always les
than the swing diameter over bed.
5. The maximum bar diameter. This is the maximum diameter of
bar stock that will pass through hole of the headstock spindle.
6. The length of bed. This indicates the approximate floor space
Occupied by the lathe.
In ordering a lathe it is necessary to ask for certain other impotant
particulars to specify the lathe correctly. These are : width of the bed, depth
of the bed,depth and width of gap if it is a gap bed lathe, swing over gap,
spindle nose diameter, centre taper Morse number and range of spindle
speeds,number of feeds, number and range of metric and Englishthreads
that may be cut, pitch value of leadscrew, power input and floor are
required.

35 DESCRIPTIONS AND FUNCTIONS OF LATHE PARTS

Fig.3.2 illustrates the basicparts of ageared head lathe. Following are the
principal parts :
1. Bed. 4. Carriage.
2. Headstock. 5. Feed mechanism.
3. Tailstock 6. Screw mechanism