Requests for: “You can make /that/ with a lathe?!?” examples

[RaisedByWolves]

This is an old saw and it may have been true for making a primitive lathe but you would be hard pressed to make a modern metal lathe using only a lathe.

OTOH, a milling machine can function as a lathe by mounting the work piece in the spindle and tooling on the table. I have done this using my Tormach CNC to essentially function as a CNC lathe. To further facilitate using my mill as a lathe, I designed an adjustable tool post for my Tormach that will permit the use of my old 4 way tool post from my lathe.

Cutting external threads using a manual mill would be an issue but a CNC mill with 4th axis capability or the use of a thread mill will solve that issue. Likewise, cutting a taper.

This is basically due to it being misquoted.

It is the only machine that can completely repair its self, but it is not true of all lathes either.