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A Complete Guide To A Benchtop CNC Lathe


As a lathe machine shop owner, you may well have considered getting a benchtop CNC lathe, and for good. You see, when it comes to high-precision machining, nothing comes close to a CNC machine, be it a mill or lathe. 

As a matter of fact, your small or medium sized workshop can be way more efficient and productive with a benchtop CNC lathe compared to a manual lathe. 

Also, if you already own a manual lathe machine, you easily make it CNC capable with a lathe CNC conversion kit

There’s so much more to a benchtop CNC lathe, so let’s have a look at it in detail. 

What is a benchtop CNC lathe? 

As you might have figured out from the name, a benchtop CNC lathe is an automated computer controlled version of its manual counterpart. 

In fact, it is the computerization which enables high speed machining and increased accuracy on these machines. 

How does a CNC lathe machine work? 

A benchtop CNC lathe needs the least human interaction, contrary to a manual CNC lathe which needs you to work with hand-held and hand-operated cutting tools. 

All you need to do on these machines is put in the pregoram as per your workpiece specifications. And this holds for a CNC lathe machine post CNC conversion or a brand new one. 

In case you’re wondering, here are the processes involved in machining using a benchtop CNC lathe:

  • CAD phase 

  • CAM phase

  • Control phase 

  • Post-processing phase

What are the different types of benchtop CNC lathe machines? 

A benchtop CNC lathe is mainly categorized in terms of its workholding and capacity. And based on these two criterias, there are two types of CNC lathe machines, vertical and horizontal machines. 

A vertical CNC lathe machine is used for heavy operations in the industries, while its horizontal counterpart is something you can use for almost all generic operations. 

Wrapping it up

If there is one way you can grow your lathe machine shop business, itsa benchtop CNC lathe. For not only such machines increase your shop’s efficiency by reducing waste generation, but also increase your profit margins. 


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