A Set of Pictures to Help You Understand the Common Methods of Machining

1.   Turning

The key of turning is to rotate the workpieces to be processed, and then move the linearly moving tool close to them to carve the surface of the workpiece.

First, the workpiece is fixed on the machine tool by a chuck. Next, the workpiece is driven by the motor to rotate at high speed. The rotation speed can be manually controlled according to our processing requirements. Then, you can start to control the tool to carve on the surface of the workpiece, which is called "cutting". Common turning tools are often made of high-speed steel or carbide. In recent years, ceramic tools and artificial diamond tools are also widely used on the market. Different shapes of turning tools can meet various processing requirements:

In addition to external surfaces, the use of boring tools in turning can also be used to finish internal surfaces where the workpiece already has holes.

2.   Milling

There are two modes of relative motion in traditional milling processing. One is that the workpiece being processed is fixed and relies entirely on the rotation and translation of the milling cutter. The other is that the milling cutter simply performs rotational motion, and the workpiece moves in three directions: forward and backward, left and right, up and down.

The milling cutter is a multi-edged tool. In each revolution of milling processing, each edge of the milling cutter only participates in one cutting, and the rest of the time is stopped to facilitate heat dissipation. In this way, the cutting efficiency of milling cutters is higher than that of single-edged turning tools. Milling cutters of different shapes can complete the processing of various planes, step surfaces, grooves, and cavities. The milling amount during milling consists of four factors: cutting speed, feed amount, back cutting amount (milling depth) and side cutting amount (milling width).

3.   Planing

The working principle of planning is clear at a glance. It is a simple back-and-forth movement. Compared with turning and milling, the production efficiency is extremely low. However, because the equipment and tool structure is simple and easy to use, it is still used to roughen the surface of workpieces.

4.   Grinding

Grinding is the use of abrasive tools such as grinding wheels and abrasive belts to cut the surface of the workpiece. In today's machining, the grinding head can be very maturely integrated into the machining center of CNC milling machines.