The design and small-scale fabrication of precision desktop lathe components

Abstract

An evaluation was carried out on the design and fabrication techniques of the components provided to students in MIT's 2.72 class. These components are used by the students in the production of a fully-functional precision desktop lathe. Changes to the existing design of the provided components were made to produce higher quality parts, to lower costs of fabrication, and to increase the diversity of the manufacturing processes utilized in the class. Much of the study was devoted to the design and production of sand cast parts. Patterns for these components were printed using stereo lithography, and then cast at a local foundry. Using a carefully designed process plan, the critical interface features of the sand cast parts were machined to their final dimensions. Specific attention was paid to the fixtures clamping these non-uniform parts to ensure accurate datums during machining.