CNC Lathe Machines: What Do They Do?

CNC Lathe Machines: What Do They Do?

Are you looking to take your home DIY projects to the next level? Or are you an established business trying to improve your production capacity?

Whatever your situation may be, there are many different kinds of specialized equipment options that you can leverage to achieve your goal of better-quality, faster-produced products. In this article, we’ll take a look at one such piece of equipment: the CNC lathe.

What is a CNC Lathe?

To understand what a CNC lathe is, it’s first important to understand the two parts of the term individually.

The first part of the term, CNC, stands for computer numerical control. To understand what this means, you’ll need to hearken back to your days in middle school geometry.

Do you remember the coordinate system? Your teacher must have shown you how any point in space can be represented by certain coordinates. These coordinates give you the distance of the point from an origin point in terms of x-distance, y-distance, and z-distance.

Thus, computer numerical control is simply a way of controlling a certain machine using this coordinate system. Any CNC machine uses inputs from a computer that are in this coordinate system’s syntax in order to output a result.

Now let’s look at the second part of the term: lathe. A lathe is a piece of heavy-duty machinery that is very commonly used in production lines. It can be used to shape metal, wood, and other materials into specific shapes and sizes.

The way a lathe works is by rotating a spindle at a very high speed. This spindle then encounters the material at specific points. The friction generated at the surface of the spindle and material’s contact eats away at the material, enabling one to create the material shapes.

Thus, a CNC lathe is simply a lathe that is controlled by computer numerical control. The coordinate system distances tell the lathe where it needs to go and what part of the material it needs to cut. 

How Do You Get a CNC Lathe?

If you have decided that you need one of these machines in your arsenal, then you might have started looking at brand-new CNC lathes. However, if you do that, you’ll be soon be put off by the prohibitive expense of new machinery.

All is not lost, though. Look instead at used CNC lathes. When taken care of, these machines can last a long time. There’s no reason to be afraid of buying the equipment off the used market.

Just make sure that the previous owner did a good job of servicing the equipment well. A poorly-maintained piece of equipment will only become a headache for you to deal with.

Get a Used CNC Lathe Today!

There you have it. Now that you know what CNC lathe machines are and why you should get them used, all that’s left is for you to start shopping today!

For advice on more business products, you’re in the right place. Check out the rest of the website to learn more!

 

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