Milling Machine

Tool operating with a rotating cutter upon the work, which is fed to it by being secured to a table which receives the feed motions from the spindle or by hand. Older types gave but one feed motion to the table, and the spindle or mandrel for the rotating cutter was adjustable by hand; some of the modern types for heavy work are of this design. Increase of feed motions extended the scope of the tool succe ively until the present universal machine has feed motions in every direction, though not all of same amplitude. For the sake of exactne of dimension the spindle is not made Milling Machine. adjustable vertically, but provision is made to take up lost motion. The advantages of the machine as a tool are that it will work to very close dimensions, even 10 inch; it reproduces the size and shape for which it has been adjusted as long as the cutters do not require re-grinding; hence one attendant of moderate skill can oversee a number of machines for manufacturing, as no measuring is required, nor the time for it. Modern sewing-machine and arm manufacture is based on these capacities of this tool in its various forms. For very large work, such as facing the ends of bridge-chords, a large machine is used, the cutting teeth being inserted in a heavy rotating disk.