What Is a Wood Turning Lathe?
A Wood Turning Lathe is a machine tool for holding pieces of wood and rotating them during processing.
It is used for wood turning, a process in which a blade or other tool is applied to a piece of wood and rotated at high speed to cut it into shape.
Unlike desks, chests of drawers, etc., which are generally woodworking, the wood lathe can be used to make rounded objects such as plates, bowls, jars, pens, etc.
Uses of Wood Turning Lathe
If you learn how to use a wood turning lathe and how to sharpen it, even an ordinary person can make circular and cylindrical shapes. Specifically, it can be used to make tableware such as bowls and plates, vases for displaying flowers, chairs with round legs, and various other parts. Other items such as handles for drawers, accessories, and small objects can also be made.
We can carve professional-looking decorations on tables and chairs to make them look luxurious. Decorations that require years of training can be applied with relative ease.
Principles of a Wood Turning Lathe
The larger the body of the lathe, the wider the range of items that can be made, and it is possible to make small pieces on a large lathe. The maximum working length is the length from the tailstock to the headstock, and the maximum turning diameter is the height from the center to the bed times two.
Hold both ends of the material with the rotary center and drive center, and after seeking the center of the material, secure it to the body with the drive center and mallet at both ends with a strength that leaves a slight mark.
Thin materials can be fixed by holding the material with a drill chuck without using a drive center. The drill chuck was originally designed to grip a drill, but it is not limited to drills; it can also grip round bars of wood and other materials within its range.
The chuck can also be used to hold materials. The chuck secures the material by opening and closing the jaws. It can be fixed from either the outside or the inside. When fixing from the inside, it is necessary to prepare a recess for the jaws in advance.
Other Information on Wood Turning Lathe
Types of Wood Turning Lathe Bites
Wood Turning Lathe tools made of HSS steel, as is the case for general ironworking. However, while ironworking lathes are used by attaching the tool to the tool rest, wood turning lathes are hand-held and look like an engraving knife.
There are also various types of bites, such as luffing gouge for rough shaving to approximate dimensions, skew chisel for beautiful surface finishing, parting tool for separating materials, scraper for making bowls and bowls, etc.
It is necessary to use different types of bites depending on the product to be made and its use.
The following is a list of the different types of bites that can be used for different purposes. Specifically, they are used in the following manner.
1. Luffing gouge
This is a special tool for roughing, mainly used to make round bars from square timber. It can be used on wood with vertical fibers (center work), but if used on wood with horizontal fibers (face work), the wood may split or fall off, resulting in an accident.
2. Skew chisel
Skew chisels are characterized by their thin, flat cutting edges and are used after the luffing gouge has shaved the wood to a certain degree. It is used for finishing work since the cutting surface becomes clean, and it is also used for machining the part to be fixed with a chuck, taking advantage of its flat shape.
3. Parting tool
As the name “parting” implies, this tool is used to separate materials and also to dig fine grooves on the workpiece.
4. Scraper
It features a plate-shaped blade and is mainly used for making smoothly curving inner shapes such as bowls and bowls. There are various types of blade shapes, from straight to gently curved. The one with a gently curved cutting edge is called a round scraper and is most suitable for processing curved shapes.