1.0 INTRODUCTION

The need for rehabilitation or refurbishing in all areas of

engineering field is necessary. This is due to the economic

situation of the nation thereby making it difficult to purchase new

machines to replace the faulty ones.

Therefore rehabilitation is the act of bringing back to life a

machine that has breakdown or is the means of preventing it from

a breakdown to occur. This breakdown could either be due to

wear of parts vibrations overheating wrong drive of belt

tensioning excessive friction along slide-way electrical fault.

These are all the factors that can make a machine not to function

correctly.

To this end we have chosen to rehabilitate a Colchester student

lathe machine which will be suitable to perform it necessary

machinery operations. The lathe machine had been rehabilitated

to have a long life span with the purchase of genuine parts.

A lathe machine is the most commonly machine in any workshop

used to perform various machine operations by means of various

additional attachments and tools. The capacity of the machine can

be increased and operations like drilling facing boring milling

knurling and broaching can be performed. (New York-hall book

Company 1968).

Machine Tools

A machine tool is a power driven apparatus designed to perform

certain metal-removing operations and produce a desired form on

the surface being machined. As most machined surfaces require

to be either cylindrical or flat the work of machine tools in general

is concerned with producing one or both of these forms. The

design of the machine incorporates means for holding and

supporting the work and the cutting tool. For example when

turning a lathe holds and rotates a piece of metal and at the same

time causes a cutting tool to move on a line parallel with the axis

of rotation. The result when the tool has completed its cut is the

formation of a cylinder and the nearness of this cylinder to

perfection is dependent on the accuracy with which the lathe

performs its movements and upon such factors as its rigidity

condition etc. (Chapman 1975).

Machine tools may be of the standard or special purpose variety.

A standard machine is one which is able to deal with a variety of

work and permits of a reasonably wide range of operations to be

performed.

A centre lathe is a good example of a standard machine tool for

upon it we are able to perform a wide range of work including the

following; (Chapman 1975).

a. Turning between centres

b. Turning facing drilling and boring in the chuck

c. Turning boring and facing work held on the face plate

d. Boring work held on the carriage using a boring bar held in

the spindle.

The lathe is a machine tool used for turning the metal being held

and rotated while a cutter is moved across or along it.

Types of Lathe: (Thomas 1982)

1. The centre lathe is the general purpose lathe. It can vary in

size and complexity but the most useful kind is the stiching

surfacing and screw cutting lathe (S. S. Sx) which is the one

generally used in schools.

2. Production work i.e. repetitive work is more often confined

to capstan turret and automatic lathe which can be pre-set

with a wide range of tools.

3. Large components are turned on heavy duty lathes often

especially designed for a specific purpose.

English lathes were specified by the height of the centre from the

bed. A lathe specified as 150mm x 1m has a bed 1m long and the

centre is 150mm above the bed. A lathe this size is capable of

turning a diameter of 300mm over the bed but less over the

carriage and a length of something less than 1m (Thomas 1982).

1.1 Background of the Work

The availability of Colchester student lathe machine for over a

period of years in educational institutions has been a determining

factor in practical engineering courses in the educational

institutions cannot be over emphasized. Practical exercises

enhance students understanding of the operational principles of

various machines and equipment as well as experimental

procedures.

Over the years successful student in mechanical engineering

graduated with excellent practical backgrounds. But as the years

run b y the standard begin to fall due to the non-functional and

obsolete of these machine therefore graduates in recent years

knows little or nothing about practical knowledge on working

principle of the machines and how to operate it. However this has

not limited the productive aspect of graduate in mechanical

engineering to perform their function as expected. The purpose of

the present study is therefore to ascertain the shortcomings

associated with the Colchester student lathe machine leading to

the research work and to refurbish the machine to perform various

lathe machine operations.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The Colchester student lathe machine in the mechanical

engineering workshop of Kaduna Polytechnic has not been

functioning for a long period of time hence operational principle of

the machine could not be demonstrated to students. Also other

machining processes cannot be executed with the machine.

1.3 Aims and Objectives of the Project

The aim of this project is to bring back the use of the Colchester

students lathe machine in mechanical engineering workshop.

Objectives:

(i) To help increase the number of machines that will be

available for workshop practice.

(ii) To contribute to the development of engineering machines

and knowledge.

(iii) To see that the problems which might lead to disfunction of

the machine is properly checked and explore and

(iv) To enable us get practical experience and the problems that

are common with Colchester lathe machine and its

components as well.

1.4 Methodology

To achieve the above objectives different methods were adopted

in obtaining data and information for the execution of this report

from our research and findings we were able to rehabilitate the

machine through the following activities. These include: The

repair of switches rewiring of electrical meter and transformer

services of head stock chuck compound slide tool post and

saddle which was rightly put in place. After the services of these

listed mechanical parts and replacement of the electrical

components other maintenance works and services were carried

out in the appropriate manner.

1.5 Scope of the Work/Limitation

The scope of the work is basically on the rehabilitation of lathe

machine and the limitations and constraints are on the Colchester

student lathe machine in the mechanical engineering workshop of

Kaduna Polytechnic.

1.6 Significance of the Work

i) It helps to bring back to life a machine that has break down

ii) It helps one to acquire maintenance knowledge

iii) It helps to reverse the faulty machines equipment etc.

iv) It gives more life span to the machine

v) It provides additional lathe machine to students practicals

vi) It improves the facilities and performance of the old machine

tool.