1.1 WHAT IS CNC TURNING - BASIC LATHE OPERATOR

At the most basic level, a lathe is a machine that: - ANS 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. - ANS 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: - ANS 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: - ANS Round or rectangular One of the main differences between a lathe an