CNC TURNING - BASIC LATHE OPERATOR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A+

CNC TURNING - BASIC LATHE OPERATOR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RATED A+ At the most basic level, a lathe is a machine that: Takes a cylindrical piece of raw metal stock and turns it into a finished part with accurate features The materials that a lathe might be cutting can vary from wood and plastic, all the way to aluminum or hard steel. True Regardless of whether a the cutting action of a lathe is controlled manually, by hand, or completely automatically by a computer, the job of the machine is to: Hold the workpiece rigidly, and move the cutting tool accurately to yield a correctly made part When you're machining parts out of metal, you'll almost always start with raw material that is either: Round or rectangular One of the main differences between a lathe and a mill is: In a mill, the tool is mounted in the spindle and the workpiece is clamped rigidly on the mill table. On a lathe, the workpiece is mounted to the spindle, and the tool is held rigidly on the turret Generally speaking, on a mill the TOOL SPINS, and on a lathe the PART SPINS. True What is the main difference between how tools cut on a lathe vs. how they cut on a mill? On a mill, there are usually two or more cutting edges on the tool that are removing material. On lathe turning operations, there is typically only one cutting edge These days, when we say "manual lathe," we are referring to the type of lathe: Where the position of the cutting tool is controlled manually The graduated dials on the manual lathe handwheels allow precision adjustments in the 0.0001 range. False "One and done" on a turning center usually refers to putting a piece of raw material into the machine, and getting a completely finished part when the machine is done cutting. True The ST-20 we looked at on the assembly line features these three components: A cast-iron base, a wedge casting, and a vector drive Why do we fully enclose our CNC turning centers? To protect the operator and the surrounding shop from the whirlwind of chips and coolant that occurs during cutting. CNC turning centers are typically faster, more accurate, and much more capable than manual lathes. True Some of the parts you can make on a CNC turning center are: Transmission shafts, pistons, and electrical motor shafts Most modern devices that use rotating motion