Glenn Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 Do lathes turn clockwise or anti-clockwise and why? Is one better than the other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheftjcook Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 My wood lathe turns counter clockwise. It turns into the cutting edge of the chisel as it turns...Assuming you have the motor to your left as you work. I did here of reversible lathes that use a different thread of chuck & jaws, Something about sanding in one direction tends to lay the fiber of the wood down, reversing the rotation cuts the wood fiber the other direction.(kind of makes sense) I have only used a wood lathe not a metal...YET...! TIM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWooldridge Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 If you mean metal lathes, most turn both ways - forward and reverse. Forward is rotating toward the tool holder, which is typically on the operator's side. The headstock holds the spindle (the part that is powered and holds the chuck) and is on the left as you face the lathe with the tailstock is on the right. The spindle can be reversed for various operations but care must be used with a threaded spindle nose because it is possible to unscrew a chuck - not a good thing. Other types of spindle noses are locked and will not unscrew in reverse. Wood lathes also rotate toward the operator so the knife is forced down against the tool rest when taking a cut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strine Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 When I stand at the door of the shed my lathe turns clockwise. When I stand at the window up the other end it turns anticlockwise. Sheesh! When I stand to work at it it turns toward me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapman1077 Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 As HWooldridge said manual lathes turn both ways for all kinds of reasons, CNC lathes can also run both ways, but mostly run clockwise since the turrett is on the back side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hdwarner Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 lathes turn both ways but think of the cutting action on a metal lathe clockwise or ccwise you want the cutting action to be pushing on the saddle of the lathe , to avoid chatter and instability the same goes for a wood lathe you want the chisel resting on the guide with the work pushing the chisel downward on to the saddle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce wilcock Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 for spinning steel dishes my father ran the lathe away from him holding the tool under the bar,dont know why ,too late to ask now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skunkriv Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 I'm guessing so he could lever the back of the tool against the upright of the tool rest. Have seen softer metals spun but have been told spinning steel is hard work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vernon Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Yes a manual metal lathe USUALLY runs counterclockwise (top of chuck/spindle towards ya)...think of the direction a drill bit needs to be turned to cut into the work, and remember it's going to be mounted in a stationary chuck on the tailstock. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Turning ccw also puts the cutting pressure down on the cutting tool. Cw and the cutter wouldn't cut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBARNHART Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Counter clock wise for the cutting tool on the left side of the work. This is considered climb cutting in milling machines. CLock wise for the cutting tool on the right side of the work. because you have the tool stationary the material is pulled over the tool. Ok now if you put the tool in upside down all this changes. If you look at the rake angle of the tool, you will find that almost always a lathe tool is ment to have the material pulled from the top... A Normal drill in the tail stock, should have a ccw material in the chuck. Just to make a point there are left handed drills on the market. know your tools and how to use em...that is the ART of the craft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBARNHART Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Bruce, this is interesting.. THe spinning I see here is the other way around. ON spinning it doesn't really matter. thanks for the idea though...with my spin on chuck I think I will stay with the ccw so it stays in place. It sounds like your dad was a real artist... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bottomgottem Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 All of the horizontal lathes that we use at my job are programmed to cut in the ccw direction. However, we do have several large vertical lathes (by large, I mean a 68" spindle) in which the turret or ram will cross zero in the x-axis and allow you to cut on the negative "x" side of the workpiece. We do this to more effectively use our tooling space in the turret or tool carousel. In these instances, the spindle will turn in a cw direction. Interestingly, we recently puchased several Daewoo horizontal cnc lathes. They came with some tooling already installed in the turrets, but the tooling was installed upside down. This would also necessitate that you program the spindle to turn cw. The Daewoo rep. who did the initial setup of the machines in our plant said that this was the typical turning method in S. Korea, where the machines were made. The turrets were designed to adapt to either method of tool installation, so we turn them over the right way first thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rstegman Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 The material should ALWAYS come DOWN into the tool, so the tool rest or tool holder keeps the tool from moving. It takes a lot more engineering or energy to hold a tool in place when it is being pulled up from the lathe bed or tool rest. With metal working, many lathes will also reverse. One use of that is that you can put the tool inside the work. Running the lathe backwards allows you to cut the inside of your work and still see what you are doing. Otherwise you have to go through contortions to see what you are doing, as you do in wood turning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freb Posted August 3, 2007 Share Posted August 3, 2007 cw is usefull if you use a tap or a die in conjunction with the tailstock to apply pressure, use a centre for a tap, faced off MT sleeve for a die, tap wrench or die holder resting on the bed like a dog, reverse to get said tap or die off for 2nd and 3rd cuts. Not one for small threads though. Also you dont get nice clean sharp threads come to think of it. But it has its purpose. if you try it beware of the wrench flipping around and getting you under the chin when you put it in reverse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nonjic Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 one of the clutches gave way on our rusky lathe so it would only run in reverse (clockwise, ie away from where your standing,) we put the tool in the holder upside down and it worked, kinda! hope this adds to the confusion :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nonjic Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 to even further add to the confusion our large vertical borer (132" table dia) has 2 toolposts (columns) one on the right as your facing the machine (3 o'clock if you like) and one on the left (9 o'clock), so you have the left tool facing back, and the right tool facing forward ! Your very own IFI Ian seemed to get a bit hypnotised by this particular machine edit....... errm ok the other way round right hand tool as you face the machine, cutting tip facing back... etc..., you can see where the confusion arrises ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Mate, great big gnarley machines that chew up even bigger lumps of metal would fascinate any bloke worth his salt. I think the one your on about was machining down some BIG bit of flanged pipe. It went round and round and round...... lol The other one I really enjoyed watching was the size of a tennis court, some sort of plane? Big flat bed and the business end travelled up and down it. As everyone has by now probably guessed I know bugger all about Machinery work, but I do know John N so I can only learn :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 When I make pipe bending dies, I grind a form tool to a little more than half the radius width. I then rough the die,finnish the left side, turn the form tool upside down, reverse the lathe and finnish the right side. If the machine wants to chatter, then I swing the tool post to the back side, leave the tool right side up and run the lathe in reverse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonDeemer Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Main concern should be DON'T stand in front of the chuck or rest you're arm on the headstock while it's turning clock wise or ( counter clockwise with the tool upside down.) If you snag a chip you could end up in compatiton with Nabisco shredded wheat's mascot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11echo Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 When your cutting threads on a lathe sometimes it's easier to do the cutting away from the headstock! ...To do this you have to be able to turn CCW. So esentually your threading upside down. ...It works I'm here to tell you!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trying-it Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 Most manually operated lathes are ran CCW so that if a chuck wrench is accidentally left in the lathe chuck, and machine is started, the chuck wrench is instantly thrown at the operator. School of Hard Knocks: Crash Course, Pass/Fail grade options A few posts back it was mentioned that drills are used with the machine operated in CCW. I wonder if those posting individuals have ever seen a left hand twist drill? They then require that the lathe be ran in a CW direction for proper cutting action. Any ideas why I may want to use a LH drill vs a RH drill for some applications? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlCatBob Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Stan, there are a couple reasons off the top of my head for left-handed bits. Most used are smaller ones for drilling out broken off bolts. As the drill works, it heats up the bolt, and as the bit drills through the bottom, it will actually back the broken piece out. The other use is for gang drills, as every other quill turns backward to the next; ie, cw-ccw-cw-ccw as the gears mesh. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hdwarner Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 left hand drills , ahhhhhhh i used to run screw machines and the high range was ccw and when you went to tap you shifted to low range and the machine would run cw and reversing the tap went into high range Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hdwarner Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 left hand drills , ahhhhhhh i used to run screw machines and the high range was ccw with left hand drills to drill the hole and when you went to tap threads , right hand threads that is you shifted to low range and the machine would run cw and reversing the tap went into high range Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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