1.1 Introduction
The wood lathe machine is introduced to lessen the human suffering and to improve economical and technological standard, and for years now Nigeria recognized that she was economically and technological poor and has been economically dependents on the western world for survival in terms of technology. To disregard this importation of technological equipment placed embargo on the importation of certain goods and this inspired our people to recognized indigenous technology though our fore father used axe, cutlass and some other sharp tools for designing woods. But, as time goes on, technologist introduced wood lathe machine, which comes in various designs and models as technology improves. Thus, the importance of wood lathe cannot be over emphasized. It is the acknowledgement of this fact that led to the design of wood lathe machine, even though this project of design and fabrication of wood lathe machine is a copied design, we tried to improve more on this machine so that it can design wood with little or no stress, utilizing the available material in order to reduced cost for production purposes and durability being of utmost important.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The recent research indicates that wood turning may be about 3000years old, originating, presumably simultaneously in Great Britain, Italy and by inhabitants of Crimea. In the good old days, there was much art and much less speed than we get today. Old spindle and bowl lathes used various sources of power, but often had low end speed of 75RPM. There were treadle models and pedal models with pedals designed to work as they did on the velocipedes wood lathes.
Lathes come in a variety of sizes and styles, which tends to force the beginning turner to start out specialized in some manner, though the smallest lathes are “Jewelers lathes” which are small enough that they may be held on one hand. Although the work piece machined on a Jeweler's lathes are metal, Jeweler's lathes differ from all other working lathes in that the cutting tools are hand held, not fixed to a cross slides.
Basically, along with stone, mud and animal parts, wood was certainly one if the first materials worked by primitive human-beings. Indeed, the development of wood lathe machine was closely tied to the development of increasingly greater degrees of skill in design of a wood. Thus, it was acknowledge of these facts brought about the design of wood lathe. Lathe machine come in variety of models amongst which are bench lathes which can sit on a bench or table, CNC lathes that are controlled by a computer, vertical lathes i.e lathe with vertical axis. Also, there are some lathes that are equipped with indexing plates, profiled cutters, spiral or helical guide, etc. so as to enable ornamental turning. Thus, the machine from its inception till date have under gone series of improvement, some parts have been simplified, modified or eliminated where found not absolutely necessary, hence different models exist in the market.
A wood lathe is an ancient tool and it is assumed to be the oldest machine tool used by man having its origin from the early tree lathe which was turned by a rope wound around the work and attached to a sparingly branch overhead (Jain R, 2008). The earliest evidence of lathe dates back to ancient Egypt around 1300BC. Primarily, there are two things that are achieved in this lathe machine set-up. The first is the turning of the wood working piece manually by a rope; and the second is the cutting of shapes in the wood by the use of sharp tool. As civilization progresses, there have been constant modifications and improvements over the original two-person lathe machine, most importantly on the production of the rotary motion (Raffan, 2001).
The production of the rotary motion therefore evolved according to the following procedures: the Egyptians manual turning by hand; the Romans addition of a turning bow; the introduction of the pedal in the middle ages; the use of steam engines during the industrial revolution; the employment of individual electric motors in the 19th and mid-20th centuries; and the latest of which is the adaptation of numerically controlled mechanisms in controlling the lathe machine.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the design and fabricate Wood Lathe Machine.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that the continuous quest to have the problems of man and his growing needs solved has led to the establishment of factories and other industries, which necessitates an intermediate technology. However, simple hand tools that were in use before are no longer efficient for mass production.
In the same manner, the importation of wood lathe machine, as a substitute, for these tools, likewise has failed to meet man's insatiable needs because of our unstable economy. Then, there comes the need for urgent attention to a better and locally made wood lathe machine.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to design and fabricate Wood Lathe Machine. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To design a machine that will be viable, reliable, and easy to carry out maintenance services at minimized cost; and
- To construct a machine that will provide a simple way of scarping and cutting off wood at its best quantity at a minimum cost of labour, so that the financial burden of people can be reduced.
1.5 Significance of Study
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Design and Fabrication of Wood Lathe Machine. Essentially, the machine comprises of the frame made of metal, with the headstock fixed in position, the tail stock moves along the bed of the machine, and the toll rest mounted on a cross slide which can be moved both longitudinally and transversely on the bed. It is located between the head stock and the tailstock.
In operations, the machine is limited to only scarping and cutting of any type of wood. Drilling operations cannot be performed on this machine.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
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