Patent ID: 7506565

Claim:
A lathe comprising: a bed; a spindle headstock disposed in a longitudinal one side portion of said bed; a tailstock disposed on the another side portion of said bed to be coaxial with a spindle axis of said spindle headstock; and a pair of first and second tool posts disposed between said tailstock and said spindle headstock, wherein said first and second tool posts are arranged to be capable of facing each other across the spindle axis of said spindle headstock, and holding parts that are disposed on turrets of said first and second tool posts are capable of pulling out a machined workpiece supported by said spindle headstock from said spindle headstock by holding the machined workpiece therebetween; a workpiece holder having a first support part supporting the machined workpiece which is pulled out and a second support part on which a subsequently machined workpiece is loaded, wherein said workpiece holder is reciprocatable in a direction orthogonal to the spindle axis between a standby position set outside a machining area and a workpiece receiving position where said workpiece holder receives the machined workpiece and the subsequently machined workpiece; wherein said workpiece holder is movable in the direction orthogonal to the spindle axis so as to position the second support part at the workpiece receiving position where the second support part receives the subsequently machined workpiece, after the first support part receives the machined workpiece at the workpiece receiving position; and a workpiece loader having a first workpiece grip part gripping the machined workpiece supported by the first support part and a second workpiece grip part loading the subsequently machined workpiece on the second support part, wherein said workpiece loader is ascendable/descendible in an ascendable/descendible direction perpendicular to the spindle axis between a workpiece change position where the machined workpiece is changed to the subsequently machined workpiece and a workpiece unloading position from which the machined workpiece is carried out of the lathe.