LATHE

OPERATIONS
 Lathe Machine:
 A lathe is a machine tool which spins a
block of material to perform various
operations such as cutting, Turning,
Facing, Threading, sanding, knurling,
drilling, or deformation such as metal
spinning with tools that are applied to
the work piece to create an object which
has symmetry about an axis of rotation
 Working of Metal Lathes:
The lathe holds a piece of material between
two rigid supports called centers, or by some
other device such as a chuck or faceplate which
revolves about the centre line of the lathe.
In a metalworking lathe, metal is removed from
the work piece using a hardened cutting tool,
which is usually fixed to a solid moveable
mounting called the "tool post", which is then
moved against the work piece using hand
wheels
 Cont.
Metalworking lathes are commonly provided
with a variable ratio gear train to drive the
main lead screw.
This enables different pitches of threads to be
cut.
Some older gear trains are changed manually
by using interchangeable gears with various
numbers of teeth, while more modern or
elaborate lathes have a quick change box to
provide commonly used ratios by the
operation of a lever
 Components of Metal Lathe
A metal lathe consists of at the least, a
headstock, bed, carriage and tailstock
Headstock
houses the main spindle, speed change
mechanism, and change gears.
 The headstock is required to be made as
robust as possible due to the cutting
forces involved.
 Spindle
• The main spindle is generally hollow to
allow long bars to extend through to the
work area; this reduces preparation and
waste of material
• The spindle then runs in precision bearings
and is fitted with some means of attaching
work holding devices such as chucks or
faceplates
 Bed
• The bed is a robust base that connects to the
headstock and permits the carriage and
tailstock to be aligned parallel with the axis of
the spindle.
• The carriage travels on the bed by means of a
rack and pinion system, lead screw of accurate
pitch, or feed screw
 Carriage
• the carriage holds the tool bit and moves it
longitudinally (turning) or perpendicularly
(facing) under the control of the operator.
• The operator moves the carriage manually via
the hand wheel or automatically by engaging
the feed screw with the carriage feed
mechanism.
 Cross-slide
• The cross-slide stands at the top of the
carriage and has a lead screw that travels
perpendicular to the main spindle axis, this
permit facing operations to be performed
• The lead screw can be engaged with the feed
screw (mentioned previously) to provide
automated movement to the cross-slide; only
one direction can be engaged at a time as an
interlock mechanism will shut out the second
gear train.
 Compound rest
• The compound rest (or top slide) is the part of
the machine where the tool post is mounted.
• It provides a smaller amount of movement along
its axis via another lead screw.
• The compound rest axis can be adjusted
independently of the carriage or cross-slide.
• It is utilized when turning tapers, when screw
cutting or to obtain finer feeds than the lead
screw normally permits.
 Tailstock
• The spindle of the tail stock does not rotate
but does travel longitudinally under the action
of a lead screw and hand wheel.
• The spindle includes a taper to hold drill bits,
centers and other tooling.
• The tailstock can be positioned along the bed
and clamped in position as required.
• There is also provision to offset the tailstock
from the spindles axis, this is useful for turning
small tapers.
Lathe Chucks
 CHUCKS
Three-jaw chuck:
A three-jaw chuck is a rotating clamp which
uses three dogs or 'jaws', usually
interconnected via a scroll gear (scroll plate),
to hold on to a tool or work piece.
• Three-jaw chucks are usually self-centering (as
a result of the jaws' meshing with the scroll
plate) and are best suited to grip circular or
hexagonal cross sections when very fast,
reasonably accurate centering is desired
 Four-jaw chuck
• A four-jaw chuck is similar to a three-jaw
chuck, but with four jaws, each of which can
be moved independently.
• This makes them ideal for gripping non-
circular cross sections and gripping circular
cross sections with extreme precision
• The non self-centering action of the
independent jaws makes centering highly
controllable (for an experienced user), but at
the expense of speed and ease.
 Multi-jaw chuck
• Chuck with six jaws
• For special purposes, and also the holding of
fragile materials, chucks are available with six
or eight jaws.
• These are invariably of the self-centering
design, and are built to very high standards of
accuracy.
• Two jaw chucks are available and can be used
with soft jaws (typically an aluminum alloy)
that can be machined to conform to a
particular work piece
 Mechanical Properties
• Cutting Speed/Surface Velocity:- Cutting
speed is defined as the speed at which the
work moves with respect to the tool (usually
measured in m/minute).
• Feed:- Feed rate is defined as the distance the
tool travels during one revolution of the
part(measured in m/revolution)
• Depth of Cut:- The depth of cut is defined as
the distance the tool is plunged into the
surface (measured in mm).
 Cutting Speed
 The cutting speed (V)is the rate of cutting on the main
motion, i.e., the cutting length in m/min.
 When the work piece rotates one complete revolution, a
certain length (cutting length) passes by the cutting edge of
the tool, which corresponds to the circumference of the work
piece [ C  * D ]
 If the diameter D of the work piece is, for example, 85 mm,
then the circumference will be 85x 3.14=267 mm=0.267 m
 When the work piece rotates 100 times per minute, the
cutting length will be 0.267m X 100=26.7m per minute
 Simple formula
• Cutting Speed (V)=  DN
1000
M/min, where D
represent dia. Of the work piece & N is revolution
per min of the work piece.
• Depth of cut (D)= (D1-D2)/2 mm, where D1 is dia.
before cut & D2 is dia. after cut

• Taper angle = Tan =(D1-D2)/2L

 where, D1= Major dia. in mm

D2= Minor dia. in mm
L= Length of the tapered part
33
 RAKE ANGLE
• Rake angle is the angle between the
top face of the tool and the normal
to the work surface at the cutting
edge
• A large rake angle will improve
cutting action, but would lead to
early tool failure, since the tool
wedge angle is relatively weak
Typical value for top rake angle
 Back rake angle
• The back rake angle affects the ability of
the tool to shear the work material and
form the chip. It can be positive, negative
or neutral
• Positive rake angles reduce the cutting
forces resulting in smaller deflections of
the work piece, tool holder, and machine
• If the back rake angle is too large, the
strength of the tool is reduced as well as
its capacity to conduct heat.
• In machining hard work materials,
the back rake angle must be small,
even negative for carbide and
diamond tools.
• The higher the hardness, the smaller
the back rake angle.
• For high-speed steels, back rake
angle is normally chosen in the
positive range
 Simple Problems
Problem -1
• A mild steel rod having 50 mm diameter and 500 mm
length is to be turned on a lathe. Determine the
machining time to reduce the rod to 45 mm in one
pass when cutting speed is 30 m/min and a feed of 0.7
mm/rev is used.
Solution
Given data: D = 50 mm, Lj = 500 mm
v = 30 m/min, f = 0.7 mm/rev
Substituting the values of v and D in

V = ΠDN/1000 M/min
• Required spindle speed as: N = 191 rpm
Problem -2
• Determine the angle at which the compound rest
would be swiveled for cutting a taper on a work
piece having a length of 150 mm and outside
diameter 80 mm. The smallest diameter on the
tapered end of the rod should be 50 mm and the
required length of the tapered portion is 80 mm.
Solution
• Given data: D1 = 80 mm, D2 = 50 mm, Lj = 80 mm
(with usual notations)
• tan  = (80-50) / 280 or  = 10.620

• The compound rest should be swiveled at 10.62o