Metal lathe




An Introduction to metal lathe

A metal lathe is machinery equipment that can remove parts of a work item by cutting that part away. Metal lathe is used to form the metal into various exact shapes. It was used for industrial purpose for cutting difficult metal parts.

Metal lathe is also used in a wide variety of applications and it can cut almost every type of material. As an example, we can use the metal pieces created with it for at tractor, a boat, a car or any other motorized vehicle and machine.


Here we can find metal lathe in many different types, such as a center lathe, a turret lathe, a capstan lathe, CNC lathe and combination lathe. Below is an explanation each of those lathes.

Center Lathe

This center lathe type is the most common type and is the basis for the metal lathe. This type of metal lathe is mostly used by hobbyists and various machinists. If we come across a metal lathe, the center lathe could be easily the first type we will ever see.

Turret Lathe

This turret lathe is another type of metal lathe that looking almost the same as the capstan lathe, but it works a bit differently. With this type of lathe, we can easily perform various machine operations such as reaming, drilling and boring.

Capstan Lathe

The capstan lathe is a combination of the actual lathe and a capstan head with a set of various depth stops that are mounted on a turret face each.

CNC lathe

This kind of metal lathe is the most modern type available nowadays and it is found more and more to replace the old, basic lathe types. It has a different, much simpler way of setting and operating and it uses very modern types of processes that are favored by most people using it.

Combination lathe

This is a metal lathe machine that has several operations besides the basic cutting. Here we can also find drilling, milling and other types lathe work. The x and y axis of this lathe machine are used by the carriage and the top slide.