Lathe

In a lathe of the type which includes a base, a rotary driven head on the base for supporting a workpiece to be machined, a carriage on the base movable in a direction axially of the rotating workpiece, a pair of diametrically opposed tool slides having tools mounted thereon and being mounted on the carriage for rectilinear movement toward and away from each other in a direction radially of the rotating workpiece to cause the tools mounted on said slides to machine the rotating workpiece, that improvement which comprises, a reversible motor having a housing fixedly mounted on one of said slides, said motor having an output shaft extending parallel to the rectilinear path of travel of the tool slides, said output shaft extending from said motor to and connected directly with the other tool slide such that, when the motor is operated in opposite directions, said output shaft is placed in axial tension and compression and applies equal and opposite forces to the two slides to shift the slides on the carriage toward and away from the rotating workpiece and a timing mechanism for assuring precisely accurate equal displacements of the two tool slides in unison comprising a pair of gear racks fixedly mounted in opposed relation, one on each tool slide, and an idler pinion journalled on the carriage and meshing with each gear rack.