There are many different kinds of machine metal services, all with different backgrounds and different ideal uses. Many of these methods have been around for many years. Read on to learn more about the differences and similarities among these various methods.
Milling
Milling is simply the process of using rotary cutters to remove material from a piece of metal. Milling has been around for a pretty long time and was often used simply referred to as a mill. The process developed from rotary filing, which has origins as early as the 1760s. Milling machines became a distinct class of their sometime between 1814and 1818. Some of the earliest developments in the field occurred at the two federal armories of the U.S.
After the invention of the computer numerical control, milling machines eventually evolved into machining centers that contained automatic tool changers, tool magazines or carousels, and CNC control, as well as coolant systems and enclosures. They are now generally categorized as either vertical machining centers or horizontal machining centers.
Boring
Boring is a technique that has been used in woodworking for many centuries. More recently, however, it has become one of many machine metal services, utilized for cutting non-circular holes in workpieces. The boring tool can be plunged and dragged along the X and Y axes to create an asymmetrical hole or channel, but can also be moved just up and down to create a more traditional circular hole. Boring can be done on a mill, lathe, or drill press machine.
Turning
Turning is an engineering machining process in which a cutting tool moves in a sort of spiral shape, which a workpiece rotates. The term turning is used to describe the cutting of external surfaces by this cutting action; the same action applied to internal surfaces is typically referred to as boring, a process previously mentioned. The actual turning can be done manually, which requires the constant supervision of a supervisor, or with an automated lathe. The most common method today is CNC, or computer numerical control. Turning is considered one of the oldest and most basic machining processes.
