Glassblowing lathes will be found in almost every scientific glassblowing shop. the primary function of the lathe is to hold and rotate glass tubing, rod or glass apparatus during the glass fabrication process. Extremely useul to the scientific glassblower - provides a much wider range of glass manipulation, size and accuracy than normally achieved by hand.
Glass lathes are available as bench or floor models. The head stock is fixed, and usually houses the main controls (on/off, rotational speed). The tail stock moves towards or away from the head stock by way of the larger wheel pictured. This movement is used to gather or take away glass during the fabrication process. The tail stock moves on rails (or ways) that maintain extremely accurate alignment with the head stock.