Lathe Operations

1. Lathe Operations ACCT-MOI-6 By: Amber Rolader, 2011

2. Parts of a Wood Lathe

3. Modern Woodworking Lathe

4. Safety Precautions Lathe Operations

5. Machine tools, even small ones, do not take prisoners. Learn from others’ past mistakes. ·    Never, ever, leave a chuck key in a chuck. ·    Lathes - and especially some milling machines - are very top heavy. Take care when moving them round the workshop, and don't do it alone. ·    Moving a machine? Take off rings and other jewelry. A friend was pulled over and his hand badly mangled by a toppling machine when the sharp edge of a tool-post bolt caught his wedding ring. ·    Keep a clear, safe and oil-free working area around your machine tools. You must be able to think of better things to do than tripping, slipping or falling onto a rotating cutter or mechanism. ·    Wear snug-fitting, tightly woven clothes and remove anything that might get wound into rotating mechanisms. ·    Wear eye protection.

6. ·    If you don’t how it works, read the instruction manual. ·    After setting up any turning job, take a moment to pull the job round by hand to check that everything clears. ·    Remember, you are using a machine tool - an expensive, precision device. Keep it clean and oiled - and don't abuse it. ·    Keep the machine and area clean.  ·    Lubricate plain headstock bearings with light oil - little and frequently. Adjustable-drip oil pots (as fitted to Myford ML7 lathes, etc.) may look old-fashioned, but you can see exactly what is happening - and they are completely effective. ·    If your lathe headstock has an oil supply held in reservoirs under the bearings, with wick or other feed - check the level every day. ·    Small lathes need all the help they can get. The secret of successful operation is to keep the cutting tools sharp by using a slip stone across the top surface; the sides rarely need attention.

7. Metalworking Lathe

8. Metalworking Lathe Part Identification

9. Small Metalworking Lathe

10. Large, Old Lathe

11. Watchmaker’s Lathe

12. Made with a Lathe Turned Chess Pieces

13. Tips & Tricks Lathe Operations

14. Keep as much of the tool supported by its clamp or holder as possible. • This reduces strain on the lathe and the tendency for the cutting tool to “chatter”. • Check that the top slide is not unnecessarily forward; keep the cutting tool as near to the center of the compound slide assembly as possible.

15. When taking a cut with one slide, for the best finish, lock the others (top slide, cross slide and carriage). • On anything other than short, light jobs always use the tailstock center to support the work-piece end. • This both reduces headstock bearings loads and eases those forces that will, in time, make your 3-jaw chuck inaccurate.

16. Use a 4-jaw chuck to grip irregular or roughly finished material - using your 3-jaw like a bench vice will ruin it. • If you find a 4-jaw independent chuck difficult to set up, persevere - it quickly becomes easier with practice. • It helps to use a magnetic base and a good-quality dial-test indicator.

17. Before inserting a center in either the headstock or tailstock, clean out the taper carefully (and center) first. The headstock center is soft and the tailstock center is hard – but there is no harm in using a hard center in either. The soft headstock center can be trued-up by being turned in position with the top slide; when this has been done make a small corresponding mark on both the center and spindle nose so they can always be put back together in the same position.

18. Do not mesh change wheels tightly; some clearance between them is necessary. • Insert a sheet of newspaper between them and press into mesh - this gives the approximate clearance needed. • Lubricate with a dry "open-gear" lubricant, or thick oil. • Avoid grease, it can stick and create a mess. • Occasionally, dismantle the train of gears to the lead screw and clean the gear teeth. • Accumulated swarf beds into them and may need picking out with a scriber.

19. On small lathes parting-off operations are likely to cause the greatest trouble.  • Using a rear-mounted tool-post, in conjunction with an inverted tool, is the best solution. • Heavy-duty drilling with a tailstock chuck?  • Go round the chuck and use the key in all three positions - it may tighten a little more each time.

20. When truing up a lathe faceplate, place your centers in the headstock and tailstock spindles.  • Place a metal rod, center-drilled at each end, between the centers and apply pressure with the tailstock wheel, as though you were setting up to turn between centers. • Lock up the tailstock. The thrust created will remove any slight endplay in the headstock bearing that, if not removed, would result in a “wavy” surface finish. • This idea also works when facing off work bolted to the faceplate - if physically possible to set up.

21. Machining titanium or magnesium?  • Both can ignite and then burn with great intensity. • Use a constant flow of coolant and keep the accumulation of turnings to a minimum. • If the material does catch fire don’t use water as an extinguisher, it will make matters much worse. • Get a large bucket and fill it with dry sand. Cover it and keep it by the lathe. • The sand will smother the flames very effectively - or buy one of the special fire retardants used in industry.

22. Helpful diagrams for using Lathes

23. Another helpful diagram

24. And another helpful diagram

25. Works Cited • All pictures are from www.wikipedia.org • All picture files are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (you are free to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work) • “Safety Precautions” and “Tips & Tricks” taken from One Hundred and Fifty Years of “How to Use a Lathe” books • “Hints & Tips for Using a Lathe” http://www.lathes.co.uk/page13.html