The lathe pictured below is a typical lathe. First, you clamp your material into the 3-jaw chuck clamps, seen on the left side. The machine is turned on, and the cylindrical piece of material begins spinning along its axis. The lathe can cut lenthwise (called facing), diameterwise (called turning), or the center can be bored out, removing inside material. Measurements are taken by turning the machine off, and then using a micrometer.

Information is transmitted without a computer. The operator controls the cutting and does the math involved. An accurate drawing is required, so the operator knows all the measurements. They then make the appropriate cuts, and measure with a micrometer.

The most common materials used on a lathe are steel and aluminum. The turning speed is adjusted to match the hardness of whatever material is being cut. Different types of lathes are configured for different types of material.

The lathe has limitations involving shapes. The final product must be symmetric around the axis of the lathe. Anything non-symmetric must be cut on a different machine, perhaps a mill. The machine is really only configured for pieces around 6" to 12" long. The diameter of raw material can't exceed 3-4", or it won't fit into the clamps.

The lathe is a fairly cheap and fast way to produce parts. Things like a shaft (what we made) are ideal to be made on a shaft. The stock material is very inexpensive. Time is reduced with not having to work with CAD, and transferring CAD files to the correct format, but time is lengthened because of the extra measurements the operator has to take.

There is a lathe on the C-level of Hammerschlag, in the Mech E machine shop. You'll need to talk to Jim Dillinger or Larry Schultz to obtain raw material. You'll also need someone trained in the shop to run the lathe.

Our piece was the shaft shown above. The problems we encountered were mainly due to the ridge on the left side of the shaft. We had to make sure that we cut that last, because the lathe wouldn't be able to hold on to the ridge very well. Unfortunately, we didn't plan well enough, and we ended up having to try to clamp the ridged part in. The shaft started wobbling, and we needed to stop. We started cutting from the other end, but the blade wouldn't fit, because the shaft was short. Luckily, we had someone help us adjust the cutting blade so it wouldn't get in the way, and we finished.

THe other main problem we had was that it wasn't CNC controlled. Each cut we made resulted from math done in our head or on paper. It was susceptible to error. It also took a long time to do the measuring. We did make one mistake, and our shaft ended up being an eighth of an inch too short. We compensated by making each end slightly shorter.

Another small problem came when drilling the keyholes. (not shown in picture). The drill bit was round, but the specifications were for square keyholes. Because of this, the keyholes were made slightly longer in order to have the correct width.

First and foremost, we learned that planning the manufacturing is really important. We needed to plan how and when to cut the ridged part on the lathe. It's also important to know your tolerances, and where the importance lies in meeting the specifications.

We also learned that time and experience are related. It took us nearly three hours to make a shaft, because we didn't have that much experience with the lathe. It would take someone experienced about 30 minutes.

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