Milling
Glossary · Machining Operations
At a glance
- Category /
- Machining Operations
- Related /
- 3 terms
- Source /
- Written in the shop
Milling is machining with a rotating cutter against a workpiece that is held still, used to produce flat faces, slots, pockets and prismatic shapes.
In practice
The opposite arrangement to turning: here the tool spins and the part is clamped to a table that moves beneath it. Milling produces anything that is not fundamentally round — blocks, housings, brackets, manifolds.
Why it matters
Most parts need both. How a job is split between lathe and mill, and how many times the part is re-clamped, is usually what determines both the price and whether the tolerances can be held.
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