The feed in lathe work is defined as what?

• A. The advance of the tool per revolution
• B. The speed of the spindle
• C. The depth of cut per pass
• D. The rate at which the work advances

Answer: (A)

The main idea being tested is how far the tool moves along the work for each turn of the spindle. That movement is the feed, defined as the advance of the tool per revolution. This per-revolution advance determines how much material is cut with each spindle turn and influences the surface finish and tool wear. The spindle speed controls how fast the spindle turns, not how far the tool moves in a revolution. The depth of cut per pass is about how deep the tool cuts in during a single pass, and the rate at which the work advances isn’t a standard lathe term for this context. If you need a broader measure, you can talk about feed rate (feed per revolution times RPM), which gives inches per minute, but the fundamental feed is the tool’s advance per revolution.