turning machine

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Last updated

July 14, 2026

Quick Summary

A lathe is a machine tool that removes material from a rotating workpiece using a cutting tool. It is one of the oldest and most significant machine tools, with wood lathes existing as early as 1569 and adapted for metal cutting during the Industrial Revolution.

Lathes are classified as turning machines, a fundamental category of metal machine tools. The most common type is the engine lathe, which can perform various operations like turning, facing, and drilling. These operations involve cutting excess metal to create shapes such as cylindrical forms, grooves, shoulders, and screw threads, as well as facing flat surfaces. Internal operations, known as boring, enlarge existing holes. Boring mills are similar but designed for larger parts that cannot fit on a lathe.12

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machine tool
Turning machines
The engine lathe, as the horizontal metal-turning machine is commonly called, is the most important of all the machine tools. It is usually considered the father of all other machine tools because many of its fundamental mechanical elements are incorporated into the design of…
Read More
The engine lathe, as the horizontal metal-turning machine is commonly called, is the most important of all the machine tools. It is usually considered the father of all other machine tools because many of its fundamental mechanical elements are incorporated into the design of…
Read More