Presses & Lathes

Presses & Lathes bring precision, power, and repeatability to metalworking, woodworking, and fabrication tasks. Whether you’re building furniture, tuning automotive parts, or prototyping components, these machines cut setup time and produce accurate, professional results.

Presses cover drill presses, arbor presses, and hydraulic shop presses. A drill press delivers straight, clean holes with consistent depth and angle, aided by adjustable tables, quill stops, and laser guides. Arbor and hydraulic presses apply controlled force for installing bearings, bushings, and gears, straightening parts, light forming, and broaching. Look for appropriate tonnage, throat depth, ram travel, pressure gauges, and sturdy frames.

Lathes spin the work so tools shape it. Wood lathes excel at bowls, spindles, and pens with smooth finishes; metal lathes handle turning, facing, threading, tapers, and knurling. Key specs include swing over bed, distance between centers, spindle bore, chuck size, and motor horsepower. Features like variable speed (belt or electronic), digital readouts, quick‑change tool posts, tailstock tapers, and steady rests improve control and throughput. Options span benchtop to industrial and CNC lathes.

Choosing the right machine starts with your material, size, and accuracy requirements. Match press tonnage to the job, ensure drill press spindle travel suits your bits, and verify lathe capacity fits your largest workpiece. Plan for footprint, weight, power (120V/240V), dust collection, and coolant.

Safe, accurate work depends on proper workholding and setup. Use vises, clamps, chucks, collets, faceplates, centers, and tool rests. Clamp stock on a drill press table, seat parts squarely on a press bed, and set tool height on a lathe. Maintain alignment, keep belts tensioned, oil ways and gibs, and replace worn bearings.

Popular accessories include carbide and HSS tooling, live centers, jacobs chucks, Morse tapers, mandrels, broaches, angle vises, and mobile bases. With the right presses and lathes, your shop can produce repeatable, tight‑tolerance work.