The Lathe & Its Uses / Or, Instruction in the Art of Turning Wood and Metal. Including a Description of the Most Modern Appliances for the Ornamentation of Plane and Curved Surfaces. With an Appendix, in Which is Described an Entirely Novel Form of Lathe for Eccentric and Rose Engine Turning; a Lathe and Planing Machine Combined; and Other Valuable Matter Relating to the Art.

by James Lukin

Beyond question the iron bed, planed as it now is at a moderate price, by machinery, is the best that can be adopted, especially if it is intended eventually to fit up the simple tool with slide rest and superior apparatus. Nevertheless, the pocket must in this case also frequently decide the question of material. If wood is preferred by necessity or otherwise, it should be hard wood, beech, or Spanish mahogany, unless it is proposed to plate the surface with iron. This latter plan costs little and, besides stiffening the bed, it prevents the wear and tear caused by the constant shifting of the back poppet and rest. A flat strip of iron one inch or an inch and a half wide can be picked out from the stores of any village blacksmith straight and level as it came from the rolls of the manufacturer. Selecting a piece of the required length and breadth, the eighth of an inch thick or rather more, the purchaser will have holes drilled and countersunk at intervals of nine or ten inches, to receive ¾-inch screws. These strips will have to be laid upon the top of the bed, at its inner edges; they need not be let in flush with the surface unless appearance is studied.

They must then be screwed down firmly, and by means of a file worked by both hands up and down their length (not across them) a good surface may be readily obtained. If the iron is let into the bed this filing will abrade the wood work, which is the reason why we prefer screwing it on the surface. This method produces a very excellent and durable lathe bed, and it will be free from much of the tremor which is so disagreeable while working upon a lathe entirely of cast iron unless the bed of the latter and the standards are more substantial than is usual with small lathes.

The standards supporting the axle of the fly wheel and bed may in like manner be of wood or iron. Even when the bed is of iron these may be of hard wood, although it is customary to make them of the same material as the bed. If of beech, oak, or mahogany, as in some of Holtzapffel's best lathes with iron beds, the tremor before alluded to will be considerably lessened. Iron is nevertheless very neat, and is quite the fashion with the majority of makers, but is too often faulty in respect of solidity.

The standards as a rule are too slight, an elegant pattern being studied to the sacrifice of substance and weight, The bed and stand of a lathe cannot be too strong and stiff.

Respecting this matter of stiffness and solidity we seldom find it sufficiently considered, and, even with practical workmen, a defect in this particular is more frequently acknowledged and put up with than remedied, although the comfort of a steady lathe is beyond question, to say nothing of its superiority when good workmanship is studied (as it always should be). The old French lathes made in the form of a thick table with four stout legs, forming the bed and back-board, are by no means to be despised as patterns; and instead of the usual method of making but one standard at end of the bed, there can be no question that two additional ones add considerably to the stability of the machine.

The fly wheel should be sufficiently heavy and have three speed grooves on the rim and two additional ones to produce a slow motion, which is required for turning metal. The latter may be worked with ease in this way when the article to be turned is small, but if heavy work is likely to be encountered the back geared lathe, to be hereafter described, must be substituted, and the slide rest will then also replace the hand tools. The crank axle is generally supported by two centre screws, the points being hardened, and also the ends of the axles, which are accordingly made of steel, and the holes for the centre screws neatly drilled and countersunk.

This is however not the most perfect method, and as we are speaking of better class lathes, as well as those of more common and cheaper make, we must by no means omit to speak of a very superior way of fitting the crank axle. The latter must be turned at both ends, the wheel bored and slipped on, and keyed in its place.

Two wheels of brass about two inches diameter, must then take the place of the centre screws. These are called friction wheels, and they must be placed sufficiently near each other to support the end of the axle between them, as shown in [Fig. 17^B], a and b. A pair of these must be thus fitted to each standard, and after the axle is placed in position a third may be placed above it to prevent the lathe cord from lifting the axle out of place by its tension. The axle and friction wheels will thus work together with an exquisitely smooth rolling motion—there will be no tendency to thrust the lathe standards apart as must result from tightening the ordinary centre screws, and the friction of the axle on its bearings will be reduced to a minimum. Any person acquainted with the use of the lathe may readily fit up these friction wheels, and the time and trouble so expended will be amply repaid by the superior ease with which the lathe can be used. We may say the same of the chain and eccentric, which can replace with similar advantage the crank and hook in ordinary use.