The common lathe has a wide range of machining objects, a wide range of spindle speed and feed adjustment, and can process the internal and external surfaces, end faces, and internal and external threads of workpieces. This kind of lathe is mainly manually operated by workers, with low production efficiency, and is suitable for single piece, small batch production and repair workshops.

On the lathe, drills, reamers, taps, dies and knurling tools can also be used for corresponding processing. The function of the lathe is to cut various rotating surfaces of different sizes, shapes and helices.