INTRODUCTION

A lathe is one of the oldest perhaps most important machine tools ever developed. The job to be machined is rotated (turned) and the cutting tool is moved relative to the job. That is why; the lathes are also called Turning machines If the tool moves parallel to the axis of the work piece, cylindrical surface is produced, while it moves perpendicular to their axis, it produces a flat surface

Working principle of a lathe

In a lathe, the work piece is held in a chuck or between centers and rotated about its axis at a uniform speed. The cutting tool held in tool post is fed into the work piece for desired depth and in desired direction. Since there exists a relative motion between the work piece and the cutting tool, therefore the material is removed in the form of chips and the desired shape is obtained

PARTS OF LATHE
1. Bed: It is a heavy, rigid casting made in one piece. It is the base or foundation of the lathe 2. Headstock: It is a permanently fastened to the inner ways at the left hand end of the bedsit serves to support the spindle and driving arrangements. All lathes receive their power through the headstock, which may be equipped with a step-cone pulleys or a gear head drive. In order to allow the long bar or work holding devices to pass through, the head stock spindle is made hollow. A tapered sleeve fits into the tapered spindle hole. 3. Tailstock: It is situated at the right hand end of the bedsit is used for supporting the right end of the work. It also used for holding and feeding the tools such as drills, reamers, taps etc. 4. Carriage: The carriage controls and supports the cutting tool 5. Feed mechanism; It is employed for imparting various feeds to the cutting tool. It consists of feed reverse lever, tumbler reversing mechanism, change gears, feed gear box, quick change gear box, lead screw, feed rod, apron mechanism and half nut mechanism.

SIZE AND SPECIFICATIONS OF LATHE

Size of a lathe is specified in any one of the following ways:
1. The height of the centers measured over the lathe bed. 2. Swing or maximum diameter that can be rotated over the bed ways 3. Swing or diameter over carriage. 4. Maximum job length in mm that may be held between the centers 5. Bed length in meters which may include the headstock length also. 6. Diameter of the hole through lathe spindle for turning bar material.

TYPES OF LATHE
The following are the types of lathes:
1. Speed lathe: In this lathe spindle can rotate at a very high speed with the help of a variable speed motor built inside the headstock of the lathe. 2. Engine or center lathe: It is the most common types of lathe and is widely used in workshop. The speed of the spindle can be widely varied as desired which is not possible in a speed lathe 3. Bench lathe: It is usually mounted on a bench. It is very similar to speed or center lathe, the only difference being it is smaller in size which enables it handle small work 4. Tool room lathe: It is similar to an engine lathe, designed for obtaining accuracy. Its used for manufacturing precision components, dies, tools, jigs, etc. and hence it is called as tool room lathe. 5. Turret and capstan lathe: These lathes have provision to hold a number of tools and can bemused for performing wider range of operations. These are particularly suitable for mass production of identical parts in minimum time. 6. Automatic lathe: These lathes are so designed that the tools are automatically fed tithe work and withdrawn after all operations, to finish the work, are complete. 7. Special Purpose lathe: These lathes are primarily designed for carrying out a particular operation with utmost efficiency

LATHE OPERATION
Common lathe operations which can be carried out on a lathe are enumerated and briefly discussed as follows; 1. Facing: Facings an operation of machining the ends of a work piece to produce a flat surface square with the axis 2. Plain turning: It is an operation of removing excess material from the surface of the cylindrical work piece 3. Ste p turning: In this type of lathe operation various steps of different diameters in the work piece are produced. 4. Taper turning: Taper. Taper may be defined as a uniform increase in diameter of a piece of work measured along its length. 5. Drilling: It is an operation of producing a cylindrical hole in a work piece by the rotating cutting edge of acuter known as the drill 6. Reaming: Reaming is the operation which usually follows the earlier operation of drilling and boring in case of those holes in which Avery high grade of surface finish and dimensional accuracy is needed. 7. Boring: It is the operation of enlarging and turning a hole produced by drilling, punching, casting or forging. 8. Undercutting or grooving: It is the process of reducing, the diameter of a work piece over a very narrow surface. 9. Threading: Threading is an operation of cutting helical grooves on the external cylindrical surface of the work piece. 10. Knurling: It is an operation of embossing a diamond shaped pattern on the surface of a work piece.