lead screw

American

[leed] / lid /

noun

(on a lathe) a rotating horizontal screw for moving the tool carriage along the work at a constant rate.

lead screw British

/ liːd /

noun

a threaded rod that drives the tool carriage in a lathe when screw cutting, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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lead screw

Its lead screw, liberated from the child’s spinning top that inspired its designer, still works, sending the basket merrily whirring in its plastic bowl.

From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2022

WHY: The incline lead screw can shear off, causing the foot pedals to drop unexpectedly, resulting in a fall hazard to the user.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 30, 2018

Hence it is better to use one end of the lead screw for general work, and to reverse it and use the other end only for screws requiring to be of very correct pitch.

From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Joshua Rose

A lead screw should be used for screw cutting only, so that it may be preserved as much as possible from wear.

From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Joshua Rose

If the pitch of the lead screw is 2 threads per inch, the wheels must advance by 6 teeth, as indicated below:—

From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Joshua Rose

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023