Conventional machining

Conventional machining is a collection of material-working processes in which power-driven machine tools, such as saws, lathes, milling machines, and drill presses, are used with a sharp cutting tool to mechanically cut the material to achieve the desired geometry. Machining is a part of the manufacture of almost all metal products, and it is common for other materials, such as wood and plastic, to be machined. A person who specializes in machining is called a machinist. A room, building, or company where machining is done is called a machine shop. Much of modern day machining is controlled by computers using computer numerical control (CNC) machining. Machining can be a business, a hobby, or both.

The precise meaning of the term "machining" has evolved over the past 1.5 centuries as technology has advanced. During the Machine Age, it referred to (what we today might call) the "traditional" machining processes, such as turning, boring, drilling, milling, broaching, sawing, shaping, planing, reaming, and tapping, or sometimes to grinding. Since the advent of new technologies such as electrical discharge machining, electrochemical machining, electron beam machining, photochemical machining, and ultrasonic machining, the retronym "conventional machining" can be used to differentiate the classic technologies from the newer ones. The term "machining" without qualification usually implies conventional machining. Since the rise of additive manufacturing (most especially since the 2000s), material-adding techniques have begun to fulfill some of the same part-creation needs that were traditionally filled with machining (which is about material removal). Therefore, in recent years material-removing processes (traditional machining and the newer types) are often being retronymously classified, in thought and language, as subtractive manufacturing methods. In narrow contexts, additive and subtractive methods may compete with each other. In the broad context of entire industries, their relationship is complementary.