An engine lathe performs many different machining operations, including turning cylindrical surfaces, facing flat surfaces, cutting threads, drilling, and boring. It has a swing of the workpiece, which indicates its maximum length over the bed ways (the flat or v-shaped bearing surfaces that align the machine).
The name “engine lathe” comes from its original power source, which was a steam engine. Today, these machines are powered by electric motors.
Headstock
The headstock, on the left end of the lathe bed, holds the main spindle and power transmission devices. The spindle nose can be attached to a wide variety of work holding devices such as mandrels, chucks and face plates. It also holds the line center (dead) or sleeve in some woodworking engine lathes. It is important that the headstock be strong because it will have to bear most of the cutting forces exerted on the workpiece. The headstock may have various speed-changing mechanisms that convert the motor shaft to different spindle speeds. These include step cone pulleys and geared heads.
Tailstock
The tailstock of a lathe is usually a casting that slides along the ways and has a locking mechanism. Its ram, or the tool that is held in it, can be driven in and out of the casting by hand or by a screw thread to provide support for turning or facing.
The tailstock is equipped with a Morse taper, which can secure tools used for hole-making operations like drilling and reamers. It is also capable of supporting long workpieces for parting operations. A lathe can produce a wide variety of parts, including screws with threads, turned tenons and square blocks, machine dies and more.
Carriage
A component that moves the cutting tool in relation to the workpiece. The carriage includes the cross slide, compound rest and tool post.
A reversing pinion gear on the carriage is meshed with the matching bevel gear on the headstock to provide power for both feed and screw thread cutting operations. The carriage also has a handwheel that can be used to manually move the carriage along the ways. The apron is bolted to the front of the carriage. It contains the mechanism that controls and moves the carriage. One can visit the site to get complete insights about reactors for sale.
Spindle
The main spindle of a lathe sits in precision bearings. It's typically hollow to allow long bars to extend through it for workholding devices such as chucks and face plates, and for the use of centers.
The headstock has a feed direction lever for changing the direction of automatic lathe feeding. The cross-slide has a feedscrew that travels at right angles to the main spindle axis to permit facing operations. It can also be engaged, through a gear train, to the carriage feed shaft to provide automated 'power feed' movement to the cross-slide.
The name “engine lathe” comes from its original power source, which was a steam engine. Today, these machines are powered by electric motors.
Headstock
The headstock, on the left end of the lathe bed, holds the main spindle and power transmission devices. The spindle nose can be attached to a wide variety of work holding devices such as mandrels, chucks and face plates. It also holds the line center (dead) or sleeve in some woodworking engine lathes. It is important that the headstock be strong because it will have to bear most of the cutting forces exerted on the workpiece. The headstock may have various speed-changing mechanisms that convert the motor shaft to different spindle speeds. These include step cone pulleys and geared heads.
Tailstock
The tailstock of a lathe is usually a casting that slides along the ways and has a locking mechanism. Its ram, or the tool that is held in it, can be driven in and out of the casting by hand or by a screw thread to provide support for turning or facing.
The tailstock is equipped with a Morse taper, which can secure tools used for hole-making operations like drilling and reamers. It is also capable of supporting long workpieces for parting operations. A lathe can produce a wide variety of parts, including screws with threads, turned tenons and square blocks, machine dies and more.
Carriage
A component that moves the cutting tool in relation to the workpiece. The carriage includes the cross slide, compound rest and tool post.
A reversing pinion gear on the carriage is meshed with the matching bevel gear on the headstock to provide power for both feed and screw thread cutting operations. The carriage also has a handwheel that can be used to manually move the carriage along the ways. The apron is bolted to the front of the carriage. It contains the mechanism that controls and moves the carriage. One can visit the site to get complete insights about reactors for sale.
Spindle
The main spindle of a lathe sits in precision bearings. It's typically hollow to allow long bars to extend through it for workholding devices such as chucks and face plates, and for the use of centers.
The headstock has a feed direction lever for changing the direction of automatic lathe feeding. The cross-slide has a feedscrew that travels at right angles to the main spindle axis to permit facing operations. It can also be engaged, through a gear train, to the carriage feed shaft to provide automated 'power feed' movement to the cross-slide.
Chuck
Bolted on the spindle to secure workpieces, chucks are available in a variety of sizes and types, including 4-jaw independent chucks. They can clamp non-cylindrical parts, too.
A chuck uses hydraulic or air pressure to move jaws on either side of a central hub, holding the part. It can be operated manually or by engaging a gear-matching system in the headstock to provide multiple spindle speeds. Some older lathes have a problem with bed wear around the chuck, which can make it difficult to machine precision details near the chuck. This can be remedied with a quick change gear box, if yours doesn't already have one.