Questions about shaping material with removing material from raw material, i.e. subtractive manufacturing. Posts may have [mechanical-engineering] and relevant material tag such as [steel] and if needed process tags such as [milling].
Machining is a process of shaping that is done by removing material from raw material. It is also called subtractive manufacturing to distinguish from additive manufacturing.
Types of machining processes
Basic machining processes are
- Turning, work piece is rotated and cutting tool is used to remove material. Lathe is the name of the machine used in this process.
- Milling, work piece is stationary a rotating cutting tool is used to remove material. Milling machine is the name of the machine used in this process.
- Drilling, work piece is stationary and a rotating cutting tool is used to cut holes or shape holes in the part. Drilling presses are used for drill operation but milling machines and lathes can also be used for drilling.
There are also other machining operations such as boring and grinding or operations that use pressured fluid that contains abrasive particles to remove material such as waterjet cutter or electron discharge machining (EDM) that uses electron discharges to shape material.
The preparation of surface finishes and tolerances can also be included in this tag.
