Mini Lathe Machine

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION
Machining is one of the most important material removal methods in the technology of
manufacturing. It is basically a collection of material working processes that involves
other processes such as drilling, shaping, sawing, planning, reaming, and grinding
among others. Machining is practically a part of the manufacture of all metals and other
materials such as plastics, and wood as well. An important machine that is useful in
machining is the lathe machine.
A lathe machine is used for rotating a workpiece in order to perform sanding, cutting,
drilling, knurling and turning operations on the workpiece. Lathes have been used on
woodworking, metal parts and also on plastic nylon parts for a long time in the industry.
So here we study the design and fabrication of a mini lathe machine. Our machine
consists of a motor with belt arrangement used to drive the lathe chuck. The machine
consists of a bed with a movable arrangement. It consists of a holder in order to hold
the desired tool in desired position. We use a chuck attached to the spindle shaft in
order to run the motor. Our motor once powered transmits this power to the spindle
through a belt mechanism, which is then used to rotate the chuck. This rotates the
workpeice in chuck. The machine is built to hold and rotate the workpeice and move the
tool in a sliding mechanism, so as to achieve the desired operations. The machine outer
frame is designed to hold the workpeice firmly with tool in place so as to achieve
desired operations with ease. Thus we successfully study the design and fabrication.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study will be discussing such problems of the lathe, both wood and machine lathes,
which workers have faced. And how you can avoid or find possible solutions for those
problems.
Metal working lathe is an extremely useful piece of equipment that you can use in your
workshop. For those who do extensive metal work, owning a metal working lathe is very
important. However, having said that, it is also important to note that this piece of
equipment is as dangerous as it is useful. It may increase the limit of jobs that you can
accomplish but risking it can also cause accidents. However, most of these problems
can be avoided.

1. Avoid long-term Accidents

- Safety First, Metal working cannot be stressed enough. Safety is crucial whenever you
are working any kind of machinery, your clothes can get caught within the machine so
you must wear proper workshop clothes.

2. The Machine is not Working Properly

- Abruptly, you may find that your machine is not working perfectly. Don’t get panicked.
This can happen when the tailstock of the lathe machine is not fixed properly. There is
no certain purpose of this tailstock. Still, it needs to be locked down firmly before you
begin cutting. The cut of the metal will not be proper if the tailstock remains unattached
or loose. However, examine the screws properly to tighten the tailstock. If you find them
loose, do tighten them well.
3. Improper Metal Cuts
- This usually happens when the cutting tool has not been set properly. This study
discusses that before you begin working, always check the cutting tool installed. While
preparing, we found out that the trick to perfect installation is to remember to get
accurate and immaculate cuts.
4. The Machine is not working properly
- Based on our research, it may cause by tailstock of the metal working lathe may not
be fixed properly. Although the tailstock does not have any specific purpose, it has to be
locked down properly before the chuck can be fed into the metal. When the tailstock
remains loose, the metal may not be cut. We tighten the tailstock, inspect the screws,
and if they are loose, we tighten them up properly.
5. Carriage is not moving
- During work, we got a ‘stuck carriage’ in your lathe machine. Along with the carriage,
the power feed handles also have to be worked properly. It is we found out how to move
or unstuck the carriage. Because it has a particular tracks to move within. Based on our
experience, it is better to be well versed in fixing the carriage to get efficient work from
the machine.
 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to have a clear answer on how big and important a Lathe
machine to an Institution with conclusion to Engineering students especially Mechanical
Engineering Majors. For practical, Lathe is one of the most important machines in any
workshop. Its main objective is to remove material from outside by rotating the work
against a cutting tool. Though a lathe is used to produce cylindrical work, yet it may also
be used for many other purposes such as drilling, threading, grinding, milling etc.
Lathes can be used to shape pottery, the best-known design being the Potter's wheel.
Most suitably equipped metalworking lathes can also be used to produce most solids of
revolution, plane surfaces and screw threads or helices. Ornamental lathes can produce
three-dimensional solids of incredible complexity. The workpiece is usually held in place
by either one or two centers, at least one of which can typically be moved horizontally to
accommodate varying workpiece lengths. Other work-holding methods include clamping
the work about the axis of rotation using a chuck or collet, or to a faceplate, using
clamps or dog clutch.

LIMITATIONS
1. This project can only spin one work piece at a time
2. You can only used required cutting tools.
3. Bearings and gears must be lubricated when needed. doing this can prolong the
project.
4. This project must be operated at a table top above the waist to prevent back pains or
being harm by the moving parts

DELIMITATIONS
1. Proper maintenance on this project is required.
2. The project us be cleaned after used.
3. The machine must be well operated. search for a proper cutting tools for the desired
output
4. Always put on the machine on a dry surface away from moisture.
5. Laces must be taken off while operating the machine to prevent accident
 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
Stand (or legs) - This is used in holding the lathe machine and in elevating the lathe
bed to a working height.
Bed - This is usually a horizontal beam that holds the chips and the swarf.
Headstock - The headstock contains the high precision bearings which hold the
horizontal axle, more commonly known as the spindle.
Spindle - This is a hollow horizontal axle with interior and exterior threads on the
inboard by which the woodworking pieces can be mounted on.
Tailstock - This is the counterpart of the headstock which contains a non-rotating barrel
that can slide in and out directly in line with headstock spindle parallel to the axis of the
bed.
Carriage - This is composed of a saddle and an apron and is used as a mount to the
cross-slide.
Cross-slide - This is a flat piece that sits crosswise on the bed which can be cranked at
right angles with the bed.
Tool Post - Sits on top of the cross-slide and holds the cutting tool in place.
Tool Rest - A horizontal area in line with the spindle and the tailstock from which hand
tools are braced against and levered into the workpieces.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1. Importance of having Lathe Machine at Workplace
- The lathe is one of the most essential machine tools. This multi-purpose equipment is
commonly used for executing a wide range of functions that includes shaping many
solid substances such as wood, metal, etc. It is an important workshop tool which is
extensively utilized in several industrial segments and especially in the metal shaping
industries.
2. How Lathe Machine make Work easier
- Contrary to popular belief, machines do not increase the amount of work that is done.
They just change how the work is done. Machines make work easier by increasing the
amount of force that is applied, increasing the distance over which the force is applied,
or changing the direction in which the force is applied.
3. Importance of learning how to use Lathe Machine
-It is an important workshop tool which is extensively utilized in several industrial
segments and especially in the metal shaping industries. Based on experienced Lathe
Operators, it is so important to know the accurate procedure to use a Lathe machine, its
first requirement is always safety, and it can make the work easy but also increasing the
chance of accident. It is important to know what accurate speed to specific material to
cut, drill, bore, etc.
 CHPATER 2

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Literature survey plays an imported part in formulating any work. There are many
papers available for the analysis of mini lathe of which few are selected based on the
relevance of the statement of this paper. Based on these research papers, a different
methodology will be chosen which is suitable for analysis of mini lathe machine The
referred papers are explained in brief as below.
In 1984, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT, New Delhi has taken a research
topic named as “Machine tool failure data analysis for condition monitoring application”.
With the development of modern manufacturing technology, Flexible Manufacturing
Systems have become key equipment in factory automation. Machine tool is heart of
the Flexible Manufacturing Systems. Ex example Lathe machine is the general type of
machine tool used by almost all the FMSs. During the operation of this machine tool,
different kinds of failures are faced by the industry. A systematic study of such failures
can help in identifying the critical sub-system of these machine tools. This will be useful
for identifying the condition monitoring needs of the machine tools. This deals with the
identification of critical sub-system based on the failure data analysis for different type of
machine tools. Initially lathe has been classified into various sub-systems as shown in
Figure. In the frequency of failures for each sub-system and failure modes have been
considered for finding out the weakest sub-system. In analysis, failure frequency and
downtime have been taken into consideration for deciding critical sub-systems of
machine tools. It can be observed that the maximum failures took place in headstock
and carriage sub-systems. These sub-systems face failures in components like gear,
gearbox bearing, spindle bearing, clutch and cross-slide jib. Here it could be observed
that the bearing failures cause longer downtime. Figure 1: Wearing Parts of
Conventional lathe On histogram different failure modes and their relative failure
frequencies have been grouped into four-failure modes, component damage, fuse burnt,
circuit fault and looseness. It can be observed that the dominant failure mode is
because of component damage. The components are electrical, electronics and of
mechanical categories.
 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH AND DESIGN

POPULATION/SAMPLE
The mini lathe machine is a simplest used turning machine having a simple
constructional parts which favors less effort to operate. Some of advantages of the
study are Mobility, Perform every operation, considering with conventional lathe, simple
and compact, easy to handle. No need extra man power also it is cheap compare to
conventional lathe, less power consumption but it is a AC to DC machine so it need a
power supply, and it can fixed anywhere.
The conventional lathe machines are suffering from its bulkiness to carry it to preferred
workspace. We need to admit the workshop for even light operations like internal design
parts, modification etc.
The mini lathe machine is specially designed for carpenters or for everyone rather to
carry light operation within their workspace. The operator can carry the machine itself
anywhere as they porting their tools.

Instrument

Lathe machine is one of the most important machine tools in the metal working industry.
A lathe machine operates on the principle of a rotating work piece and a fixed cutting
tool. The cutting tool is feed into workpiece to be formed to the desired shape.
The late machine is one of the oldest and most important machine tools. As early 1569
wood lathes were in use in France. The lathe machine was adapted to metal cutting in
England during the Industrial Revolution.
The general operations done with the lathe are grooving, turning, cutting, sanding and
etc. if anyone wants to operate the lathe machine then they must first to know about
feeds, cutting speed, depth of the cut and usage of tool should be considered. With
every cut desired the speed, depth and feed of the lathe machine is changed to
precision.
Types of Lathe Operation:
The working of the lathe machine changes with every operation and cut desired. There
are a lot of operations used for the lathe machine. Some of the common lathe
operations are:
●facing
●taper turning
●contour turning
●chamfering
●cut off
●threading
●boring
●drilling
Facing
- This is usually the first step of any lathe operation on the lathe machine. The
workpiece is to cut from the end to make it fit in the right angle of the axis and
remove the marks.
Tapering
- Tapering is to cut the workpiece to nearly a cone shape with the help of the
compound slide. This is something in between the parallel turning and facing off.
Parallel turning
- This operation is adopted in order to cut the workpiece parallel to the axis.
Parallel turning is done to decrease the diameter of the metal.
Parting
- The part is removed so that it faces the end for this the parting tools is involved in
slowly to make perform the operation for to make the cut deeper the parting tool
is pulled out and transferred to the side for the cut and to prevent the tool from
breaking.
Lathe Cutting Tools
There are several lathe cutting tools that help in cutting with the lathe machine, but our
project is the smaller version of a lathe machine so it have a limitations. It can only
operate with woods or alloys. The commonly used tools are mentioned below:

●Carbide tools ●Boring Bar

●Grooving tool ●Side tool
●Cut – off blade
●Parting blade

DATA ANALYSIS
In this study, discusses how the data analyzed and include some any statistical
treatments.
Below are the data and procedures on how the research results:
1. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
- The experimental procedure includes the selection of the specific material, machine
and machining operation required for the capability study.
2. METHODS
The process capability study involve the generation of data from the shaft turning. The
procedure for the study include Selection of the candidate material, evaluating the
measurement system, preparing the control plan, analyzing data samples, estimating
the process capability and establishing a plan for continuous turning process
improvement.
The straight turning operation shown schematically in Figure 1 was done for ninety (90)
test piece at spindle speed of 300 rpm - 500 rpm, with feed rate 0.25 - 0.5 mm/rev at a
depth of cut of 0.01 mm for nominal diameter of 40 mm with specification limit of 40f7
(tolerance of 0.025 ± 0.050). Roughly drilled hole are finished to specification H8 on
each test piece to exact size by using a reamer which was mounted on the lathe
tailstock. The cutting operation for the steel was performed at room temperature of
25˚C.
The Spindle speed, N, for the cutting process was obtained from Equation (1)

Figure 1: Turning single point tool process

Where: v is the cutting speed measured “m/min” and D is the work-piece diameter
measured in “mm”. Moving range of two successive observations were used to
determine the variability employed in deriving the control limits for the process. The
variability of the process was measured in terms of the distribution of the absolute value
of the difference of every two of the successive observations. The control limit were
obtained from Equations (2)-(8)
∑nj−1 xj
x=
n
Where x the process mean, j is the number of observation ranging n observation, and n
is the subgroup size.
Moving range: R = ∑𝑛𝑗 𝑥1 − 𝑥𝑗 − 1
∑𝑛
𝑗−1 𝑥1−𝑥𝑗−1
Average Moving Range: R = 𝑁

Where A2, D3, D4 are control chart constants which depends upon the size of the
subgroup of the data. The process capability indices, process average, and the
standard deviation were obtained from the process data assuming that the data is
normally distributed. The capability indices are obtained from the following expressions.
𝑈𝐶𝐿−𝐿𝐶𝐿
Cp= 6σ
UCL−x 𝑥−𝐿𝐶𝐿
Cpk= min ( , )
3σ 3σ

Where Cp is the process capability for two-sided specification limit, irrespective of

process center, Cpk is the process capability for two-sided specification limits accounting
for process centering and σ is the standard deviation. The statistical process control
(SPC) technique was used to assure that the process remains stable. The output of the
turning process was compared with the specification limit using the capability indices.
3. RESULTS
TABLE 1 Shows the data obtained for three attempt of the turning process at various
speed and feed rate of the operation.
Figure 2 shows the control chart for machining operation. The process control
Chart shows that the data points fell within control limits. The moving range chart also
indicates that all the data points are within the control limits indicating that the process is
in statistical control and hence is under control and stable. Consequent upon this
premise, the process capability evaluated by the use of capability indices via the SPC
software is shown in Figure 2(b).
For the subgroup size of n = 3, the control chart constants are obtained as, A2 = 1.023,
D3 = 0, D4 = 2.574, d2 = 1.693. The control limits are thus obtained as shown in
TABLE 2. The process capability indices were obtained for the process data as Cp =
0.58 and Cpk = 0.58. This implied that the process is placed exactly at the center of the
specification limits. And since Cp < 1 the process is considered not adequate. The
machine capability for industrial application is therefore not adequate and the process
centering is also considered inadequate. In this circumstance, the Cpk index is used to
interpret the capability of the process. It therefore could be deduced that the process at
varying feed rate and spindle speed is not capable of producing the quality required for
the specified shaft. The machine settings are therefore not favorable and the process
need be revisited to take the mean back towards the center.

Figure 2:
The result of analysis of the data collected indicates that, the process is not capable of
consistently bringing out shafts with diameter falling well within the customer’s
expectation, even though it remained in statistical control.
Also, the process is not acceptable. The process owner cannot claim that the customer
will not experience difficulty in the use of products which translate into losses. The
reliability of such product resulting from the process cannot therefore be guaranteed.

PROCEDURES
I. This study provides a step by step procedure we conducted to get the data needed for
our research, here are the following:
1. All stock must be properly secured in the lathe chuck or mounted prior to the
machining process taking place. Use the correct sized clamp or vise for the stock being
machined.
2. Turn the chuck or faceplate by hand to ensure there is no binding or danger of the
work striking any part of the lathe.
3. Check to ensure the cutting tool will not run into the chuck or lathe dog. If possible,
feed away from the chuck or dogs.
4. Before starting the lathe, ensure the spindle work has the cup center embedded; tail,
stock and tool rests are securely clamped; and there is proper clearance for the rotating
stock.
5. Prior to starting the lathe, ensure that small diameter stock does not project too far
from the chuck without support from the tail stock center.
6. When using wood, do not mount a split work piece or one containing knots.
7. When roughing stock, do not force the tool in the work piece or take too big a cut.
8. The operator must always be aware of the direction and speed of the carriage or
cross-feed prior to engaging the automatic feed.
9. Double check all measurements for operating machine on workpiece.
10. Select turning speed carefully. Large diameter stock must be turned at a very low
speed. Always use the lowest speed to rough out the stock prior to final machining.
11. The correct speed and feed for the specific material and cutting tool must be used.
Stop the machine before making adjustments or measurements.
12. Do not remove metal or wood chips from the table or stock by hand. Use a brush or
other tool to properly remove chips or shavings from the table or stock.
13. Never attempt to run the chuck on or off the spindle head by engaging the power.
14. Do not stop the rotation of the chuck by reversing the power to the lathe unless
tapping holes.
15. Do not leave tools, bits or excess pieces of stock on the lathe bed.
16. All belts and pulleys must be guarded. If frayed belts or pulleys are observed, the
lathe must be taken out of service and the belts or pulleys replaced.
17. Stop the machine immediately if odd noise or excessive vibration occurs.
18. Only properly sharpened drill bits and cutting tools in good condition should be
used. Dull drill bits and chipped or broken cutting tools must be removed from service.
19. Make sure the machine is turned off and clean before leaving the workspace.
Always remove the chuck wrench after use, avoid horseplay, and keep floor area clean.
Use cares when cleaning the lathe, the cutting tools are sharp, the chips are sharp, and
the workpiece may be sharp.
20. When an operator has finished working on the lathe, and before leaving the lathe for
any reason, the power must be shut off and the machine must come to a complete stop.
ii. Lathe Machine Safe Work Procedure
PRE OPERATION
 Make sure the machine is turned off or the emergency stop switch is engaged,
before comment of any work or inspection.
 Ensure the work piece has been suitably prepared for the lathe operation.
 Ensure work piece is securely fastened to face plate, chuck or between center as
required by the task.
 Remove the chuck wrench/key immediately after adjusting the chuck.
 Rotate the work piece by hand to check clearance between tool rest and bed.
 Test the cooling fluid system operation and availability.

OPERATION
 Never leave the machine running while unattended
 Switch off the lathe and ensure it has come to a complete standstill before
making any adjustments
 Keep the tool rest adjusted close to the work and at the correct height
 Adjust speed to suit the diameter of the work and turning operation
 Never use the file to smooth, clean or deburr a work piece.
 POST OPERATION
 Switch off the machine and reset all guards to a fully closed position.
 Allow all part to come to stop before making alterations or at completion of work.
 Remove work from chuck and remove chuck key.
 Leave the machine in a safe, clean and tidy state.
 Leave the working area clean and tidy.

TIMELINE
Presents a clear indication of the time frame for the project, Identify tasks, the times
when each activity of the project will be implemented and the responsible member of
the team of the team:
1. Planning Phase
- Once the research investigators had gathered preliminary data for review, the task
force began the process of selecting which organizations to study in depth. The intent
was to include all types of organizations (trade, professional, philanthropic), reflect
various geographic scopes (state, national, international), and represent various
membership sizes (small, medium, large).
2. Data Gathering
- Real-time machine tool data collection isn’t just about helping manufacturers improve
productivity and profitability, although that’s certainly a promised outcome. It’s also an
essential first step toward a data-driven, high-tech manufacturing sector that is globally
competitive.