Testing machine tools by

Schlesinger principle Lathe

Machine test
SEMINAR WORK - PROJECT
course: Machine Tools and Devices
Course holders:
Doc. dr. Peter Krajnik

Author:
Vujakovi Aleksandar

Ljubljana, February 2015.

Introduction
It is hardly possible for the machine tool builder to assume the responsibility for the
consequences of treatment to which machine tools are subjected while being transported from the
works to their destination.
Machine tools are very sensitive to impact or shock; even heavy cast-iron standards are not
always solid and rigid enough to withstand stresses due to a fall during transportation, so that
deformations may be set up. Sometimes even, cracks will be found in a machine frame so that the
entire machine is rendered useless.
Moreover, the machine is always carefully adjusted and aligned when on the test stand or
in the assembly department of the maker, whereas it is well known from experience that erection
in the workshop of the user is not always done with sufficient care so that the inaccuracies of the
work resulting from faulty erection are wrongly blamed on the machine. At the manufactures plant,
moreover, skilled men as well as the necessary testing equipment are available which, outside the
testing department, is only obtainable with difficulty.
Obviously the purchaser of a machine is fully entitled to repeat the tests in his own works,
but if it is his intention to do so he should have at his disposal all the necessary testing equipment
and an experienced inspection staff. The test chart for a machine of small or medium size, a copy
of which is supplied to the buyer with the machine, should afford a guarantee that it has been tested
in the maker's works under precisely the same conditions (on a concrete foundation or cast iron
plate) as it will later operate.
The grade of working accuracy, besides depending on the machine itself, depends also
upon other factors, such as:
(1) The type of cutting tool and its condition (cutting angles, hardening process,
eccentricity of milling cutter, correct of shape).
(2) Cutter arbors.
(3) Cutting speed, feed and sectional area of chip.
(4) Material to be machined.
(5) Shape and rigidity of work piece.
(6) Chucking or holding equipment.
(7) Degree of skill of the operator.
It is therefore not always practicable absolutely to guarantee the attainable grade of
working accuracy, but only limited or conditional "assurances" or "promises," not binding in law,
can be given to the effect that the machine, when properly erected and used in conformity with its
design and with the proper tools will meet the specified grades of working accuracy.

LATHE TESTS
(a) Checking the ways and Fundamental Movements.
The bed must be straight longitudinally. With beds up to 3 meter in length the setting of a
level on the guide of the carriage is sufficient. If necessary an intermediate block or bridge may be
used. The bearing base of the level must always be parallel to the axis of the
vee shaped way.
The straightness of the way is checked by placing the level at intervals on 300 mm, along
the whole length of the bed. In a similar way the opposite surface is checked.
With machines of more than 3 meter between center other means of testing the ways must
be chosen such as taut wire, telescope, autocollimator, comparison with long
straightedges, etc., see Fig. 1.

Fig 1. Using Vees of Bed as Water Channels when Erecting Planning Machine
The convexity to the front way caused the displacement of the bubble to be in opposite
direction for each half of the way.
The bubble displacement should always be towards the center of this way. But in both
cases only one convex shape is allowed in the direction towards the middle of the bed, while the
back surface is usually made flat. It is advisable, then, to take this flat guidance as the starting
surface for all other measurements.
The straightness of the tailstock guidance, surface quality and parallelism with the
carriage ways is readily tested with the dial gauge clamped to the carriage (Fig. 2).

Fig 2. Acceptance test for guide ways

As the feeler of the dial gauge passes over the surface, it will show quite clearly every
minute depression on the mottled surface, which must be of the finest quality in order to
withstand the severe wearing conditions during machining between centers. Another way of
checking the parallelism of the guide ways of carriage and tailstock is by inserting intermediate
blocks (Fig. 3) or by using the tailstock itself as such a block.

Fig 3. Checking parallelism of guide ways

A disadvantage of this method is that it shows the general directions of the ways but
gives no indication of surface quality, a factor of great importance to the user.
(b) Checking the relations of the axes of rotation to other important units.
(l) Parallelism of the carriage guidance with the:
(a) tailstock guidance (Fig. 2) plane to plane ; (b) working spindle (Fig. 4) plane to axis;
(c) external diameter of tailstock sleeve (Fig. 5) plane to axis ; (d) internal taper of sleeve (Fig. 6)
plane to axis ; (e) axis of lead screw (Fig. 7) plane to axis.

(2) The parallelism of the main spindle with the tool slide also requires checking (Fig. 8).
The measurement (1) (a) has been discussed (see Fig. 2) and the measurements (1) (b) to ( 1 ) (e)
are all performed in a similar manner so that it is only necessary to describe in detail the case (1)
(b) (Fig. 4) . Place the mandrel in the spindle taper and fix the dial gauge to the carriage. Adjust
the dial gauge so that the feeler is touching the upper mandrel surface, turn the spindle slowly until
the mean position is reached in which the effect of eccentricity, etc. , is eliminated .
Move the carriage parallel to the mandrel for the prescribed length (a to b) of 100 mm to
300 mm and note the dial gauge reading, at the beginning and end of the movement. These
observations must be made in both the horizontal and vertical planes. The main spindle must be
run in for about an hour at its highest speed (warmed up) before the foregoing measurements are
made. If this is not done the spindle will not be at its normal working temperature (30 to 40 C)
and consequently will not be in its normal working position.
The permissible inclination of the axis of the spindle to the guiding surfaces of the carriage
are (a) a rise towards the free end of the mandrel to allow for wear of the main bearings, (b) an
inclination of the free end of the machine to allow for deflection due to the cutting forces. It is
essential that the tailstock sleeve be properly clamped in position while its parallelism with the
carriage way is being checked (Fig. 5), because the clamping stress influences the position of the
sleeve.
Besides testing parallelism of axes, it is often necessary to check the relative position of
axes. For example the spindle and tailstock of a lathe must not only be parallel, their axes must be
in the same straight line (aligned). Another example is the half-nut and bearings of the lead screw.
In order to check the height of the main spindle, and of the taper in the tailstock sleeve, a hollow
mandrel 300 mm. to 500 mm. long, accurately centered should be inserted between centers (Fig.9).
A dial gauge fixed to the carriage with its feeler touching the top of the mandrel should be
observed as the carriage is moved along the mandrel (it is only permissible for the tailstock end to
be higher). Before making the test, the main spindle must be warmed up by an adequate period of
running-in (about an hour) at full speed.
To check the alignment of the half-nut and bearings of the lead screw, place the carriage in
its middle position on the bed and close the half-nut. Clamp the dial gauge rigidly to a bridge which
bears on the back surface of the bed and is guided by the front main carriageway only. The dial
gauge feeler is applied directly to the top of the thread so that the alignment to the right of the
carriage thread can be checked by reading in positions (I) .and (III) (Fig. 7), and that to the left by
readings in positions (I) and (II). The lead screw should be turned to check the true running of the
external diameter by a dial gauge.
In order to determine whether the movement of the cross slide of a lathe is perpendicular
to the axis of the main spindle a surface plate may be faced and checked or the usual method using
the turn-over arm may be employed.
To check the accuracy of a lathe for facing purposes it is necessary to clamp a work-piece
to a threaded flange located on the spindle by a spigot and to machine the surface of the
work-piece with a fine finishing cut taken from the axis to the outer-surface. The faced surface is
then checked by placing a straight-edge on two equal slip gauges situated at either end of an
external diameter and inserting a third slip gauge of the same size between the straight edge and
the surface of a point near the center (Fig. 10).

The third slip gauge must enter, for the only permissible deviation of the faced surface
from a perfect plane is a slight concavity. It is incorrect to check this movement of the cross-slide
by fixing a dial gauge to the tool holder and traversing the faced surface. Obviously, if this is done,
the dial gauge will follow exactly the same path as the tool and its reading will, therefore, be zero.

Fig 11. Checking perpendicularity

Another method of checking the movements of the cross slide is to clamp a straight-edge
to the upper slide and to fix a dial gauge to the face plate. The straight-edge must be adjusted at
right angles to the axis of rotation by obtaining two equal dial gauge readings in two positions
180 apart in the horizontal plane (Fig. 11). When the straight-edge is so adjusted, it is possible to
check the straightness and perpendicularity of the motion of the cross-slide by moving it and the
straight-edge across the feeler of the dial gauge. It is always a good scheme to check one testing
method by a different one.

REFERENCES
[1] Dr. Geo. Schlesinger: Testing Machine tools
[2] Stankovic, P. : Projektovanje Masina Alatki