Most machine shop locations will offer specific types of machine shop services, along with some types that they may specialize in or have a greater proficiency with. Learn the various services that are offered at most machine shop locations and exactly what is involved with these services.
Drilling
Drilling is a machine shop service offered by many locations. Here, a drill bit is used to create a hole in many different types of materials. This bit is held up against the material and rotated at hundreds or thousands of revolutions per minute in order to obtain the hole through the material. This process can cause the material to weaken, especially near the drilling site, which can lead to cracks and corrosion. Three main types of drilling are spot drilling, center drilling, and deep hole drilling.
Boring
Boring is another type of machine shop service offered at most locations. This involves enlarging an existing hole that was achieved through drilling. Boring enables a greater accuracy of a hole’s diameter than one can achieve via drilling. Two main types of boring include line-boring and back-boring. Line-boring involves the boring bar either being supported at one end or at both ends. Back-boring involves boring on the “back” side of an existing hole.
Turning
Turning is a common machine shop service offered at many machine shops. Here, a piece of material such as plastic, stone, metal, or wood is rotated while a cutting tool goes along from one to three axes of motion in order to create exact depths and dimensions. Most of these processes are carried out on a lathe. In the past, turning had to be done manually under careful supervision, but with the advent of computer numerical control (CNC), close supervision is no longer required in order to complete the turning process.
