Module 1

Lathe Accessories and Attachments

Lathe Accessories:
The Lathe Machine Accessories are those that are used for holding and supporting the work
material or for holding the cutting tool.
Important Lathe Accessories:
1. Face Plate
2. Catch plate or Dog plate
3. Mandrel
4. Steady rest
5. Follower rest
6. Chuck
7. Angle plate
8. Centers

1. Face Plate: It is used for holding the irregular shape of work pieces, which difficult to hold
in Chuck in conventional way.
2. Catch/Drive plate or Dog plate: Catch plates are either screwed or bolted to the nose
of the threaded, stock spindle. A projecting pin from the dog fits into the slot provided in
catch plate. This imparts a positive drive between the lathe spindle and work piece.

3. Mandrel: Mandrels feature a tapered axle that presses into the bore of the workpiece to
support it between centers. You would use a mandrel on a lathe when the workpiece cannot
be gripped for accurate machining.
4. Steady Rest: It is used for supporting long cylindrical jobs during machining to avoid the
bending or deflection of the workpiece.

5. Follower Rest: To avoid the bending of the workpiece, due to the cutting forces acting by
the tool, exactly opposite to the tool, support is provided and it is moving along with the tool
called as follower rest.

6. Chuck: A lathe chuck is mounted on the headstock of a lathe and can be actuated
manually or under power. Typically, it is used to hold a rotating workpiece, such as a bar,
and some can also hold irregularly shaped objects that lack radial symmetry.
7. Angle Plate : The angle plate is made by two plates machining at an angle of 90 degrees.
This slotted angles plate can be used in lathe, shaper, grinding machines.

8. Centres: The most common methods of holding the workpiece in a lathe are between the
two centres i.e. live centre and dead centre. The different types of centres are used for
different types of workpieces and also for specific purposes. The important types of centres
used as shown in the figure below.
Lathe Attachments

Taper Turning Lathe Attachments:

Many modern lathes have a taper bar behind the bed. The spindle can be set at different
angles to the spindle. The bar has a sliding block that, during taper turns, is attached by a
link behind the cross-slide. The lead screw of the cross-slide is delivered so that it does not
control the setting of the depth of cut and the slide is now independent.

When the saddle is pushed along the bed, the cross-slide follows the taper bar, so that the
tool travels parallel to the bar and a taper is obtained. The top slide is rotated by 90° at right
angles to work so that it can be used to utilise the depth of cut.

Grinding Lathe Attachments: The lathe can be used for re-sharpening millers and
milling cutters, for grinding hard bushes and shafts, and many other grinding operations,
with the help of a good electric grinding attachment. V bed ways of lathe bed must be
covered with thick cloth or canvas to shield them from dust and grit from the grinding
wheel, and lathe spindle bearings must also be protected.
A large, powerful grinder is satisfactorily used for external grinding. The wheel must be 100
mm in diameter and the grinder must be located directly on the compound rest of the lathe.
Gear Cutting Lathe Attachments: The gear cutting attachment on the lathe will cut
the spur and bevel gears. It may also be possible to perform linear indexing, external
keyway cutting, splining, slotting, and all routine dividing head light milling tasks. This gear
cutting attachment is very beneficial for cutting small gears and for light machining.

Milling Lathe Attachments: This attachment is mounted on a cross-slide of a lathe in

place of compound rest. The milling attachment works at right angles to the milling cutter,
which is fastened to the chuck or collet. The milling cutter and the indexing head are
attached on the compound rest.
Both of these attachments have provisions for feeding in all three directions, and therefore,
it is possible to conduct operations such as keyway cutting, angular milling, T-slot slots and
thread milling, etc. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brTjn5w-HXM)

Thread Chasing Dials: The side of the cut threads on a lathe and lathe spindle with
lead screw is in the same virtual space for every successive cut. The majority of lathe also
has a thread chase dial, which is fixed or attached to the carriage for this reason. Changing
the dial indicates that the split nut should be occupied by a lead screw to follow before the
cut grooves. The thread chasing dial is connected to a worm gear, which is meshed by
threads of lead screws.