Mastering the Lathe

Parts and Functions of a Lathe

• The lathe consists of several main parts including the bed, headstock, quick-change gearbox, carriage, and tailstock.
• The bed is a heavy casting that supports the lathe's working parts and has machined ways to guide and align them.
• The headstock is clamped on the left-hand side of the bed and provides drive-through gears to the work-holding devices.
• The headstock spindle can be fitted with a live center, face plate, or chuck to hold and drive the work.
• The quick-change gearbox contains several different-sized gears that provide various speeds for turning and thread-cutting operations.
• The carriage is used to move the cutting tool along the lathe bed and consists of the saddle, cross-slide, and apron.
• The cross-slide provides a manual or automatic cross-movement for the cutting tool and can be swiveled for taper-turning operations.
• The compound rest is fitted on top of the cross-slide and can be swiveled to any desired angle for taper-turning operations.
• The apron houses the gears and mechanism required to move the carriage or cross-slide automatically and has a locking-off lever to prevent engaging the split nut lever and the automatic feed lever at the same time.
• The tailstock can be adjusted for taper or parallel turning and has an internal taper to receive the dead center for support of the work.
• The tailstock spindle can also hold other standard tapered shank tools such as reamers and drills.
• The main function of the lathe is to remove material from the workpiece and make it the desired shape and size through operations such as turning, tapping, boring, grinding, and polishing.