Guangdong JSWAY CNC Machine Tool Co., Ltd. since 2004.
Turning Metal in the Wood Lathe
Can you turn metal in a wood lathe? The answer is yes, up to a point. The wood lathe is far from ideal for this purpose. But many small items in brass, aluminium or steel can be turned freehand quite successfully.
Without a tool slide, accuracy comes from the turner's skill. Making true cylinders or flat surfaces accurate to a thousandth of an inch freehand is not easy. But many items don't need such precision.
Preventing chatter
The main problem is chatter, the vibration that leaves a rough surface on the work. Woodturners are familiar with chatter in turning wood; when cutting metal it is much worse. To prevent chatter, the cutting tool and the workpiece must not be able to move in relation to each other. The lathe must be strongly built, with good bearings and a rigid headstock spindle, toolrest and bed. The workpiece must be held firmly, with minimum projection from the headstock, and tailstock support should be used whenever possible, which means that headstock/tailstock alignment must be good. Light cuts using a robust and sharp tool, with minimum projection over the toolrest, should then produce an acceptable result.
If all these requirements can be met, turning can be done either with normal high speed steel woodturning scrapers or with a graver. A graver, which can easily be homemade, is similar to a woodturning point tool. It is used a bit like a skew chisel and will plane off long curly shavings from steel. Brass likes tools with zero top rake, so responds well to scrapers. These can also be used for steel. They need a short bevel and are used without a burr. Both these tools can leave a polished surface on the metal. Aluminium can be turned with a graver or even a small bowl gouge. Cutting speeds for steel should be much lower than for wood, but because only small items are really feasible, the normal low speed setting on the lathe is probably ok.
Turning steel is tiring because the tool must be held firmly up to the work. It helps to use a pivot pin in the toolrest to lever the tool into the work. This gives more control.
Safety
Turning metal can be hazardous. It is essential that the workpiece is held in the lathe firmly and safely. Chunks of steel flying out of the machine are even more likely to do you harm than are lumps of wood. Eye protection is a must. The swarf is sharp and hot - wood chips hitting your hand can be annoying, but metal swarf will cut and could even catch your fingers and drag them in. A bad dig in could wrench the cutting tool badly enough to break it and perhaps cause injury. So take care!
As we have known for quite some time, the success of JSWAY in the future will depend greatly on our ability to strike a balance between valuable human insight and interaction with technology.
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Methods to Reduce the Impact of Force-Induced Deformation
To minimize the impact of force-induced deformation on the stability of Swiss-type lathes and enhance machining accuracy and stability, the following measures can be taken:
JSWAY Company’s Professional Team Performance
As one of the exhibitors, JSWAY Company showcased the excellence of its professional team at this Jakarta Industrial Week. The team members of JSWAY Company, with their enthusiasm and professional knowledge, actively engaged in exchanges with customers from all over the world, providing them with detailed product introductions and technical support. They not only demonstrated JSWAY Company's advanced technology and high-quality products in the fields of CNC machines, milling and turning centers, and Swiss-type lathes, but also left a deep impression on customers with their enthusiastic service.
The booth of JSWAY Company attracted the attention of many professional visitors. Through professional explanations and demonstrations, the team members successfully conveyed to customers JSWAY Company's technological advantages and innovation capabilities in the field of CNC machines. Their positive performance not only enhanced JSWAY Company's brand image but also laid a solid foundation for the company's further expansion in the Southeast Asian market.
Compare manual mills and CNC machine advantages, costs, precision, and applications to choose the right technology for prototyping, job shops, or production.
Improving Precision and Service Life through Fixture Adjustment and Maintenance
Fixture Adjustment Methods:
Fixture Maintenance Methods:
By properly adjusting and regularly maintaining fixtures, the machining accuracy and service life of Swiss-type lathes can be effectively improved, ensuring efficient and stable production processes.
The stress in a machine tool bed can influence machining quality in several ways:
Machining Accuracy
Deformation and Displacement: Stress in the bed can cause structural deformation, which in turn affects the positional accuracy of various machine components. For example, insufficient rigidity at the tailstock support of the bed may lead to positional deviations of the tailstock center, with maximum displacement deformation reaching up to 0.13465 mm. Such deformation directly impacts the relative positioning between the tool and the workpiece, resulting in machining errors.
Differences in Machining Effects with Different Power Head Configurations
Single Spindle vs. Dual Spindle: Single-spindle Swiss-type lathes usually come with one side power head and are suitable for machining relatively simple parts. In contrast, dual-spindle lathes can be equipped with more power heads and can even perform simultaneous machining on the main and secondary spindles, significantly improving machining efficiency and complexity.
Side Tool Post vs. Horizontal Tool Post: Power heads with a side tool post structure perform better when machining difficult-to-chip materials, while those with a horizontal tool post structure are more efficient for machining easy-to-cut materials.
In summary, the power heads of Swiss-type lathes offer significant advantages in machining accuracy, efficiency, complexity, and adaptability. Different power head configurations can be selected based on specific machining requirements to achieve the best machining results.