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Hartness 3x36 flat turret lathe with cross-sliding head, equipped forbar work, 1910.[1]
The turret lathe is a form of metalworking lathe that is used for repetitive production of duplicate parts,
which by the nature of their cutting process are usually interchangeable. It evolved from earlier lathes
with the addition of the turret, which is an indexable toolholder that allows multiple cutting operations to
be performed, each with a different cutting tool, in easy, rapid succession, with no need for the
operator to perform setup tasks in between, such as installing or uninstalling tools, nor to control the
toolpath. The latter is due to the toolpath's being controlled by the machine, either injig-like fashion, via
the mechanical limits placed on it by the turret's slide and stops, or via electronically-directed
servomechanisms for computer numerical control (CNC) lathes.
Contents
[hide]
o 1.1 Overview
o 2.1 Mid-19th century: do not treat duplicate parts like one-off parts
o 2.3 Mid-20th century to present: transition to small runs and second operations
• 4 Reference citations
• 5 Bibliography
• 6 External links
There are many variants of the turret lathe. They can be most generally classified by size (small,
medium, or large); method of control (manual, automated mechanically, or automated via computer
(numerical control (NC) or computer numerical control (CNC)); and bed orientation (horizontal or
vertical).
During the 1870s through 1890s, the mechanically automated "automatic" turret lathe was developed
and disseminated. These machines can execute many part-cutting cycles without human intervention.
Thus the duties of the operator, which were already greatly reduced by the manual turret lathe, were
even further reduced, and productivity increased. These machines use cams to automate the sliding
and indexing of the turret and the opening and closing of the chuck. Thus, they execute the part-
cutting cycle somewhat analogously to the way in which an elaborate cuckoo clock performs an
automated theater show. Small- to medium-sized automatic turret lathes are usually called "screw
machines" or "automatic screw machines", while larger ones are usually called "automatic chucking
lathes", "automatic chuckers", or "chuckers".
Machine tools of the "automatic" variety, which in the pre-computer era meant mechanically
automated, had already reached a highly advanced state by World War I.
CNC VTL, King Vertical Turret Lathe Model 100, built 1955.
CNC VTL, 16' Rockford Open Side, built 1980.
The term "capstan lathe" overlaps in sense with the term "turret lathe" to a large extent. In many times
and places, it has been understood to be synonymous with "turret lathe". In other times and places it
has been held in technical contradistinction to "turret lathe", with the difference being in whether the
turret's slide is fixed to the bed (ram-type turret) or slides on the bed's ways (saddle-type turret).[3]
[4]
The difference in terminology is mostly a matter of United Kingdom and Commonwealth usage
versus United States usage.[2] American usage tends to call them all "turret lathes".
The word "capstan" could logically seem to refer to the turret itself, and to have been inspired by the
nautical capstan. A lathe turret with tools mounted in it can very much resemble a nautical capstan full
of handspikes. This interpretation would lead Americans to treat "capstan" as a synonym of "turret"
and "capstan lathe" as a synonym of "turret lathe". However, the multi-spoked handles that the
operator uses to advance the slide are also called capstans, and they themselves also resemble the
nautical capstan.
No distinction between "turret lathe" and "capstan lathe" persists upon translation from English into
other languages. Most translations involve the term "revolver", and serve to translate either of the
English terms.
The words "turret" and "tower", the former being a diminutive of the latter, come ultimately from the
Latin "turris", which means "tower", and the use of "turret" both to refer to lathe turrets and to refer
to gun turrets seems certainly to have been inspired by its earlier connection to
the turrets of fortified buildings and to siege towers. The history of the rook in chess is connected to
the same history, with the French word for rook, tour, meaning "tower".
It is an interesting coincidence that the word "tour" in French can mean both "lathe" and "tower", with
the first sense coming ultimately from Latin "tornus", "lathe", and the second sense coming ultimately
from Latin "turris", "tower". "Tour revolver", "tour tourelle", and "tour tourelle revolver" are various ways
to say "turret lathe" in French.
[edit]Flat-turret lathe
A subtype of horizontal turret lathe is the flat-turret lathe. Its turret is flat (and analogous to a rotary
table), allowing the turret to pass beneath the part. Patented by James Hartness of Jones & Lamson,
and first disseminated in the 1890s, it was developed to provide more rigidity via requiring less
overhang in the tool setup, especially when the part is relatively long.[5]
[edit]Hollow-hexagon turret lathe
Hollow-hexagon turret lathes competed with flat-turret lathes by taking the conventional hexagon turret
and making it hollow, allowing the part to pass into it during the cut, analogously to how the part would
pass over the flat turret. In both cases, the main idea is to increase rigidity by allowing a relatively long
part to be turned without the tool overhang that would be needed with a conventional turret, which is
not flat or hollow.
[edit]Monitor lathe
The term "monitor lathe" formerly (1860s-1940s) referred to the class of small- to medium-sized
manual turret lathes used on relatively small work. The name was inspired by the monitor-class
warships, which the monitor lathe's turret resembled. Today, lathes of such appearance, such as the
Hardinge DSM-59 and its many clones, are still common, but the name "monitor lathe" is no longer
current in the industry.
Turrets can be added to non-turret lathes (bench lathes, engine lathes, toolroom lathes, etc.) by
mounting them on the toolpost, tailstock, or both. Often these turrets are not as large as a turret
lathe's, and they usually do not offer the sliding and stopping that a turret lathe's turret does; but they
do offer the ability to index through successive tool settings.
Another way to look at this change is that humans gradually figured out that they should not treat
duplicate parts like one-off parts. You do not need a master craftsman to cut each duplicate part as if it
were unique; if you can set up a repeatable sequence of restricted movements, you can simply repeat
the same sequence with each part. And if you can preserve the setting of each tool, so that a tool
change does not destroy the setting, but rather lets it be indexed back into position whenever needed,
then you have saved vast amounts of time and effort.
The ideas above developed gradually, first in the armory practice of the mid and late 19th century
(otherwise known as the American system), and then in true mass production during the 20th century.
Those two phenomena have not always been differentiated from each other, but the difference is in
the degree to which toolpath control had replaced skilled fitting, or, as it is more often expressed, the
degree to which "the skill had been built into the machine tool". The replacement did not happen
overnight, but rather was a gradual tapering off of reliance upon fitting, the progress varying by plant
and by decade, until it had been completely eliminated from the assembly process, creating true mass
production.[6]
As an example, if one wanted to make a batch of special knurled-head screws, the turret could be set
up with tools and used in this sequence:
After this, a front tool on the cross slide could cut a groove in the knurled area, providing a chamfer,
and then a rear tool would be brought forward to cut the finished screw from the bar, called "parting it
off".