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Title: |
1873 Article - Foot lathe |
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Source: |
Manufacturer & Builder May 1873, pg. 100 |
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Insert Date: |
5/7/2022 10:43:07 AM |
Text of article:
The Foot-Lathe.
FOOT-LATHES had, prior to the introduction of the engine-lathe, been used on very heavy work. It is but a few years, comparatively speaking, since cast-iron shafts, six, eight, and ten inches in diameter, were turned in such lathes. For all that we know to the contrary, many jobs far exceeding this in size, have been thus executed. In some shops there are still standing heavy oaken beds, made of timber 20 inches deep and 4 or 6 inches, faced with boiler-iron, and in the racks above there are long-shanked tools, with which the men of old were wont to do the work. These lathes are never used now except for drilling holes or for apprentices to practice on; but they serve to show what machinists had to do in olden times, when there were no vise-benches to sit on and watch the chips curllng off the tool, as men do now.
Hand-lathes are not in great favor in large machine shops. They are not used, or should not be, for any purpose except drilling; and then they are no longer hand-lathes, but horizontal drilling-machines. There is no simple work to be done on a hand-lathe that could not be performed to better advantage and more cheaply on a machine constructed for the purpose. Some large machine-shops keep a hand-lathe going continually, cutting of stud bolts, facing and rounding up nuts, and similar work. This does not seem profitable. A machine to do this work would do more, of a better quality, than hand-labor could.
The foot-lathe - the terms hand and foot-lathe are synonymous - is generally used at the present time by small machinists, manufacturers of gas-fixtures, amateurs, etc., men who not work a lathe constantly, but are called off to braze or solder, or perhaps to fit some detail with a file. For these uses the foot-lathe is one of the cheapest of tools, for the same person that does the work furnishes the power also; so that a man working on a foot - or hand-lathe, as it is often called - ought to have first-class wages. Moreover, a first-class foot-lathe turner is alwas a good mechanic, for it takes no small degree of dexterity to perform the several jobs with ease and dispatch and certainty. To always get hold of the right tool, to use the same properly, so that it will last a reasonable time without being ground or tempered, to rough-turn hollow places with a square edge, to chase a true thread to the right size every time without making a drunken one or a slanting one, to make a true thread inside of an oil-cup or a box - all these several tasks require good judgment, dexterity, and a steady hand. Of course where a slide-rest is used the case is different. We allude specially to a cutting-tool managed by the hand.
To do all these things, however, it is necessary to have tools, and good ones, or none. It is an old saying that a bad workman quarrels with his tools, but a good workman has a right to quarrel with bad tools if he is furnished with them through chance or design. It is impossible to execute good work with a dull tool, one badly shaped, or unsuited to the purpose, and therefore it is important to set out right at the beginning, and the first thing to be done is to purchase a really good lathe. One of the best forms of this useful implement, especially adapted for use where there is no steam power, we herewith present an illustration. It is made by Messrs. A. F. Prentice & Co., Worcester, Mass., from new and improved patterns. Its weight is 400 pounds, swings 11 inches, length of bed 4 or 5 feet, as desired, and can be furnished with or without back gears. Further particulars can be obtained by addressing the manufacturers. |
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