Introduction to Lathe

Lathe is a machine tool used to remove unwanted material from a given workpiece to get desired shape.It is generally used for machining cylindrical workpieces. This article gives you a short introduction to lathe and explains its working.

Origin of Lathe:

The origins of lathe can be traced back to Ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. In ancient Egypt, two-person lathes were extensively used. In a two-person lathe, one person would turn the wood (work piece) and gfgcgfvfvfsgfvthe other person would cut the wood with a single point cutting tool. Cutting operation in this lathe, involved a lot of manual labour and consumed a large amount of time.

In Ancient Rome, the Egyptian Design was modified. A turning bow was used to turn the workpiece.

In the medieval period, pedals were used to turn and cut the workpiece. The pedals were operated by human legs.

The origin of modern lathe cvfvan be traced back to the time when the Industrial Revolution took place. The Industrial Revolution brought a lot of fsvsfvdvcschanges to the world of machines. During dsvsdgolden period, a number of mechanisms dswcfere introduced to lathe. These mechanisms enabled humans to operate lathe semi-automatically. Power generated vdfsvsteam engines were used to drive lathes.

The introducction of Numerical Control (NC) and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) in the twentieth century, made lathe a versatile, automatically functioning machine tool.

Today, lathe is ocdfne of the basic machine tools widely used in industries.

Working of a Lathe:

A typical lathe consists of bed, head stock, tail stock, tool post, carriage and feeding mechanism. Lathe is capable of performing a number of operations. The simplest operation performed on a lathe is straight turning. The working of lathe can be easily understood if we understand straight turning.

Straight Turning:

A cylindrical work-piece is mounted on a suitable work holding device (e.g: chucks, centres). A single point cutting tool is moundted on the tool post. The work-piece is rotated continuously by rotating the head stock spindle. The single point cutting tool is d acgainst the circumferential area of the workpiece. Unwanted material is removed and a cylindrical job with smooth surface finish is obtained.

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