If any one of these things are not as they should be there will be either no cutting taking place, excessive heat and noise, or complete failure of the tool. We will cover each one of these four points later on in more detail.

For now, we will move on to the terminology of a lathe. There will be a lot of terminology that you will be expected to know when using a lathe. The faster you familiarize yourself with it the better.

As you can see above, there are a few parts to a lathe. However, the image above is simplified for your convenience and to teach just the basics. Each part has a name and serves a specific purpose. It is important to know the names of the parts, and what they do on a lathe. A lathe can be mentally divided into two halves, split straight down the middle into the head and the tail. The head halves will be on your left, and the tail halves will be on your right. These two halves are referred to as the Head end and Tail end. In the middle, you will have your Cross feed that holds your cutting tool.

The individual part names will reflect their position, their purpose, or what they are there to do. Again, it is important to know these names. Above you will see a breakdown of each part's name.

As you can see, the names reflect either their physical position on the lathe or their purpose on the lathe. Here is the purpose of each of these parts shown above.

Headstock assembly - Contains the gearbox, speed selector mechanism, and on/off switches.
Spindle - Holds onto the material and spins the material.
Tailstock assembly - Contains the quill and slides along the ways. Can be locked in position so it does not slide.
Quill - Feeds in and out of the tailstock to allow the use of drills, taps, and centers.
Tool holder - Holds the cutting tool firmly.
Cross slide - Slides along the ways and also across the ways to allow the cutting tool to move into the material.
Ways /Tracks - Allows the cross slide and Tailstock to slide closer to the headstock.

In reality, there is far more to a lathe than just these 7 items, but they are your basic 7 items.

Lets talk about PPE ( Personal Protective Equipment )

There are some PPE that you will almost always wear in the workshop. The two main ones are A) Safety shoes (Enclosed Shoes) and B) Safety glasses. The other PPE around a lathe would be C) Ear muffs and D) Aprons.

It is important that you protect your eyes from flying metal chips, that you protect your feet from stepping on these metal chips, protect your chest and clothes from these metal chips, and protect your ears from excessive noise ( if there is any ).

When you are around a lathe, whether you are the one using the lathe or just watching someone use it, you should check your PPE.

Lathes should be respected. They can hurt you, or in the worst cases, kill. Therefore your behavior around a lathe should reflect the nature of danger it presents.

DO NOT's

- Don't distract someone while they are using the lathe. No practical jokes, no shoving, no tickling.
- Don't make loud noises (Smacking a hammer on a work table for example) while someone is using a lathe.
- Don't wear long sleeves
- Don't touch the spindle or material while it is spinning
- Don't wear loose jewelry
- Don't let your long hair hang loose while using a lathe
- Don't put your head close to the workpiece while using the lathe

If these DO NOT's are not followed then an accident will definitely happen, like the one below.