Wood Lathes vs Metal Lathes: What's the Difference?

A lathe is one of the most versatile machine tools used in the manufacturing industry. It can cut, sand, drill, face, turn and deform workpieces. Lathes are characterized by the way in which they hold workpieces. While milling machines expose a stationary workpiece to a rotating cutting tool, lathes expose a rotating workpiece to a stationary cutting tool.

All lathes use this same method of operation: the workpiece is secured on the lathe, after which it rotates against a stationary cutting tool. Lathes, however, are often classified as either “wood” or “metal.” ;

What Is a Wood Lathe Machine?

A wood lathe machine ;is a type of lathe that’s designed specifically for woodworking applications. In other words, they are used to cut, sand, drill, face, turn and deform wooden workpieces. They still work like all other lathes by exposing a rotating workpiece to a stationary cutting tool. But wood lathe machines are used specifically to work wooden workpieces. They are not suitable for workpieces made of harder materials, including metal.

Wood lathes are smaller and simpler than their metal counterparts. The speed at which they rotate workpieces is controlled by a basic pulley system. They don't produce as much power as metal lathes, but wood lathes are highly effective at manipulating wooden workpieces.

Comparison of CNC Wood Lathe over Traditional Wood Lathe

What is CNC Wood Lathe?

A CNC wood lathe ;is specifically designed and developed for carrying out engraving processes. This high-tech machinery ensures that the processes like woodturning, wood milling, and cylindrical carving are carried out with proper precision and perfection. CNC wood lathe offers optimum performance level over the traditional wood lathe making it ideal for any kind of wood manufacturing project.

CNC wood lathe machine takes your imagination to a new level. You just need to configure the shape and size of the prototype, which you would like the machine to produce. Rest, the CNC wood lathe machine will automatically turn the wooden piece into a beautiful product.

This fully automatic machine will feed, shape, and do the engraving without the assistance of even a single person. This is the best solution for building a staircase and central pole or you can say central pole or newel.

This type of central pole is placed in between the staircase to support the staircase both structurally and decoratively. Earlier creating newel and balusters was a tedious and time-consuming process but with the help of a highly-efficient automatic CNC wood lathe, once a tiresome job can be completed in a span of a few minutes.

CNC wood lathe/turner carries out heavy cutting parameters effectively saving sufficient motor time. The automatic tool changing device also reduces the turnaround time of the products and enhances the production time more efficiently. The biggest advantage of a CNC woodturner lathe machine is that it can create exact replicas of the prototype of the product.