CNC Turning Services by AXIS Generation offer a widespread technology for manufacturing cylindrical parts from various materials. Unlike CNC Milling, CNC turning rotates the workpiece and introduces a stationary tool into the workpiece. Advanced CNC turning centers take this further by adding milling functionality to the machine to produce highly complex parts like those in the image below:

This article will provide a top-level introduction to the CNC lathe machine and will describe typical naming conventions, how CNC turning works, the types of operations available, and the various components of a CNC turning machine.

CNC Turning Explained

CNC Turning is a subtractive manufacturing technology and refers to the process of removing material from a (typically) cylindrical stock piece of material —  though CNC turning can also be performed on a wide range of stock shapes such as hex or square bar. The machine spins the workpiece while a tool moves to engage and remove material until the desired shape is achieved.

Turning machines can be vertical or horizontal, and the figure above shows the axes convention for vertical and horizontal machines (6 axes shown, although number of axes varies). Vertical CNC turning is typically used to machine large and heavy designs as the material’s center of gravity is aligned along the rotational axis. 

Horizontal CNC turning has the workpiece mounted in such a way as to cause a cantilever effect. That cantilever setup may cause vibration in large, heavy pieces which can affect the machining quality, and also cause potential damage to the turning machine and tooling. 

Vertical turning has its own set of drawbacks, however. One drawback is chip evacuation: if cutting chips are not effectively evacuated after being cut, potential issues like chip recutting and part scratching can result. Therefore, horizontal CNC turning is the most common setup.