For anyone who does CNC machining, your lathe is one of the essential machines you will use. Lathes are helpful for many distinct functions, such as cutting, shaping, and drilling wood and metal workpieces. You can use a lathe for turning, tapering, form turning, screw cutting, facing, drilling, spinning, grinding, and polishing with the right attachments. Read on to learn about the different types of lathe tools and their uses.

Lathe Chucks

A lathe chuck's primary function is to clamp down on a workpiece with radial symmetry as it spins. Typically, you mount a chuck on a spindle while rotating with the headstock. The most common type of chuck for a lathe is the self-centering chuck, which comes in distinct variants, such as the 2-jaw, 3-jaw, and 4-jaw. The jaws fit onto a scroll plate, which allows each jaw to grip a workpiece simultaneously.

Morse Tapers

A morse taper is a mechanism for anchoring cutting tools or holders in a lathe's spindle. There’s a hollow end specifically designed for a male end arbor. Once the arbor begins to rotate, it goes deeper into the open end, increasing the surface pressure between the two metal pieces. This pressure helps to minimize sliding. They come in various sizes to fit different machines.

Dead and Live Centers

A dead center on a fixed or rotating end of the machine can support the workpiece, which itself doesn’t freely rotate. The dead center generates the friction between the workpiece and center when it’s in a fixed position. You can also use live centers to support a workpiece. They can rotate with the workpiece, whereas dead centers don’t.

Lathe Holders

Lathe holders help keep tools secured inside a lathe while it’s operating. The selection of tool holders varies to fit with the cut's preciseness and pace, with various tool holders having different balances and runout.

For both professional and hobbyist machinists, knowing the different types of lathe tools and their uses is critical for completing virtually any project. DZ Sales offers exceptional CNC lathe tools for getting the job done right. Please contact us through our website with any questions about our products.