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SRI LANKA INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY

ENGINEERING SKILL DEVELOPMENT

(ME1031)

INTRODUCTION TO LATHE MACHINE

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Student ID ……………………..
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ME103 Engineering Skill Development

Introduction to Lathe Machine

Objective
To familiarize the operations of lathe machine

Introduction
Lathe is a machine, which removes the metal from a piece of work to the required shape and
size. The origin of turning lathes goes to around 1300 BC when the Egyptians first developed a
two-person lathe. One person turned the wood work piece with a rope while the other used a
sharp tool to cut shapes in the wood. The Romans improved the Egyptian design with the
addition of a turning bow. Early bow lathes were also developed and used in Germany, France
and Britain. In the Middle Ages a pedal replaced hand-operated turning, freeing both the
craftsman's hands to hold the woodturning tools. The pedal was usually connected to a pole,
often a straight-grained sapling. The system today is called the "spring pole" lathe (Pole-lathe).
During the industrial revolution, mechanized power was applied to the lathe via steam engines
and line shafting, allowing faster and easier work. Between the late 19th and mid 20th centuries,
individual electric motors at each lathe replaced line shafting as the power source. Beginning of
1950s, servomechanisms were applied to the control of lathes and other machine tools via
numerical control (NC)

There are different types of lathes available in the market. Following is a schematic diagram of a
lathe machine.

Figure 1: Components of a Lathe

The schematic diagram (Figure 2) of the lathe machine available at SLIIT mechanical workshop
is given below.
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Figure 2: Lathe at SLIIT

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Exercise
You need to manufacture the following machine part (Figure 3) using a lathe machine according
to the dimensions given.

Figure 3: Machine Part

All Dimensions are in mm.

Discussion

 Briefly describe the types of lathe machines.

 Briefly describe the operations which can be performed using a lathe machine.
 Briefly describe different types of work holding devices used to hold a workpiece in a
lathe machine.
 What do you mean by CNC lathe machine?