Milling machine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the machine used in road construction,
see Asphalt milling machine.
Not to be confused with mill (grinding).

Example of a bridge-type CNC vertical milling center

A CAD designed part (top) and physical part (bottom)

produced by CNC milling.

This article needs
additional citations for verification.
 Please help improve this article by
adding reliable references. Unsourced
material may
be challenged and removed. (July 2010)
A milling machine (also see synonyms below) is
a machine tool used to machine solidmaterials.
Milling machines are often classed in two basic
forms, horizontal and vertical, which refers to the
orientation of the main spindle. Both types range in
size from small, bench-mounted devices to room-
sized machines. Unlike a drill press, which holds the
workpiece stationary as the drill moves axially to
penetrate the material, milling machines also move
the workpiece radially against the rotating milling
cutter, which cuts on its sides as well as its tip.
Workpiece and cutter movement are precisely
controlled to less than 0.001 in (0.025 mm), usually
by means of precision ground slides
and leadscrews or analogous technology. Milling
machines may be manually operated, mechanically
automated, or digitally automated via computer
numerical control (CNC).
Milling machines can perform a vast number of
operations, from simple (e.g., slot and keyway
cutting, planing, drilling) to complex (e.g.,
contouring, diesinking). Cutting fluid is often pumped
 to the cutting site to cool and lubricate the cut and to
wash away the resulting swarf.
Contents
 [hide]
 1 Types and nomenclature
o 1.1 Mill orientation
 1.1.1 Vertical mill
 1.1.2 Horizontal mill
 1.1.3 Comparative merits
o 1.2 Alternate classifications
o 1.3 Variants
o 1.4 Alternate terminology
 2 Computer numerical control
 3 Tooling
 4 History
o 4.1 1810s-1830s
o 4.2 1840s-1860
o 4.3 1860s
o 4.4 1870s to World War I
o 4.5 World War I and Interwar
Period
 4.5.1 Bridgeport milling
machine
o 4.6 1940s-1970s
o 4.7 1980s-present
 5 See also
 6 Notes
o 6.1 Bibliography
o 6.2 Further reading
 7 External links

[edit]Types and nomenclature

Mill orientation is the primary classification for milling
machines. The two basic configurations are vertical
and horizontal. However, there are alternate
classifications according to method of control, size,
purpose and power source.
[edit]Mill orientation
[edit]Vertical mill

Vertical milling machine. 1: milling cutter 2: spindle 3: top

slide or overarm 4: column 5: table 6: Y-axis slide 7: knee 8:
base
In the vertical mill the spindle axis is vertically
oriented. Milling cutters are held in the spindle and
rotate on its axis. The spindle can generally be
extended (or the table can be raised/lowered, giving
the same effect), allowing plunge cuts and drilling.
There are two subcategories of vertical mills: the
bed mill and the turret mill.
 A turret mill has a stationary spindle and the
table is moved both perpendicular and parallel to
the spindle axis to accomplish cutting. The most
common example of this type is the Bridgeport,
described below. Turret mills often have a quill
which allows the milling cutter to be raised and
lowered in a manner similar to a drill press. This
type of machine provides two methods of cutting in
the vertical (Z) direction: by raising or lowering the
quill, and by moving the knee.
 In the bed mill, however, the table moves only
perpendicular to the spindle's axis, while the
spindle itself moves parallel to its own axis.
Turret mills are generally considered by some to be
more versatile of the two designs. However, turret
mills are only practical as long as the machine
remains relatively small. As machine size increases,
moving the knee up and down requires considerable
effort and it also becomes difficult to reach the quill
feed handle (if equipped). Therefore, larger milling
machines are usually of the bed type.
Also of note is a lighter machine, called a mill-drill. It
is quite popular with hobbyists, due to its small size
and lower price. A mill-drill is similar to a small drill
press but equipped with an X-Y table. These are
frequently of lower quality than other types of
machines.
[edit]Horizontal mill

Horizontal milling machine. 1: base 2: column 3: knee 4 & 5:

table (x-axis slide is integral) 6: overarm 7: arbor (attached to
spindle)
A horizontal mill has the same sort of x–y table, but
the cutters are mounted on a horizontal arbor
(see Arbor milling) across the table. Many horizontal
mills also feature a built-in rotary table that allows
milling at various angles; this feature is called
a universal table. While endmills and the other types
of tools available to a vertical mill may be used in a
horizontal mill, their real advantage lies in arbor-
mounted cutters, called side and face mills, which
have a cross section rather like a circular saw, but
are generally wider and smaller in diameter.
Because the cutters have good support from the
arbor and have a larger cross-sectional area than an
end mill, quite heavy cuts can be taken enabling
rapid material removal rates. These are used to mill
grooves and slots. Plain mills are used to shape flat
surfaces. Several cutters may be ganged together
on the arbor to mill a complex shape of slots and
planes. Special cutters can also cut grooves, bevels,
radii, or indeed any section desired. These specialty
cutters tend to be expensive. Simplex mills have one
spindle, and duplex mills have two. It is also easier
to cut gears on a horizontal mill. Some horizontal
milling machines are equipped with a power-take-off
provision on the table. This allows the table feed to
be synchronized to a rotary fixture, enabling the
milling of spiral features such as hypoid gears.
[edit]Comparative merits
The choice between vertical and horizontal spindle
orientation in milling machine design usually hinges
on the shape and size of a workpiece and the
number of sides of the workpiece that require
machining. Work in which the spindle's axial
movement is normal to one plane, with an endmill as
the cutter, lends itself to a vertical mill, where the
operator can stand before the machine and have
easy access to the cutting action by looking down
upon it. Thus vertical mills are most favored for
diesinking work (machining a mold into a block of
metal).[1] Heavier and longer workpieces lend
themselves to placement on the table of a horizontal
mill.
Prior to numerical control, horizontal milling
machines evolved first, because they evolved by
putting milling tables under lathe-like headstocks.
Vertical mills appeared in subsequent decades, and
accessories in the form of add-on heads to change
horizontal mills to vertical mills (and later vice versa)
have been commonly used. Even in the CNC era, a
heavy workpiece needing machining on multiple
sides lends itself to a horizontal machining center,
while diesinking lends itself to a vertical one.
[edit]Alternate classifications
In addition to horizontal versus vertical, other
distinctions are also important:
Example
Criterion classification Comments
scheme
Among vertical mills, "Bridgeport-style"
Vertical versus
is a whole class of mills inspired by
Spindle axis horizontal;
the Bridgeport original, rather like the
orientation Turret versus
IBM PC spawned the industry of IBM-
non-turret
compatible PCs by other brands
Control Manual; In the CNC era, a very basic distinction
Mechanically is manual versus CNC.
automated via Among manual machines, a worthwhile
cams; distinction is non-DRO-equipped versus
Digitally DRO-equipped
automated
 viaNC/CNC
Number of axes
(e.g., 3-axis, 4-
axis, or more);
Within this
scheme, also:

Control  Pallet-
(specifically changing
versus non-  
among CNC
machines) pallet-
changing
 Full-auto
tool-changing
versus semi-
auto or manual
tool-changing
General-purpose
versus special-
Purpose  
purpose or
single-purpose
Toolroom
machine versus
Purpose Overlaps with above
production
machine
A distinction whose meaning evolved
over decades as technology progressed,
and overlaps with other purpose
classifications above; Commonly, a
"Plain" versus
Table design "plain table" means the table is fixed in
"universal"
place on the machine and cannot be
rotated. A "unversal table" means that
the table may be rotated to various
angles.
 Micro, mini,
benchtop,
Size standing on floor,  
large, very large,
gigantic
Line-shaft-drive 
Most line-shaft-drive machines,
versus individual
ubiquitous circa 1880-1930, have been
electric motor
scrapped by now
Power source drive
Hand-crank-
Hand-cranked not used in industry but
power versus
suitable for hobbyist micromills
electric

[edit]Variants

A miniature hobbyist mill plainly showing the basic parts of a

mill.

 Bed mill This refers to any milling machine

where the spindle is on a pendant that moves up
 and down to move the cutter into the work. These
are generally more rigid than a knee mill.
 Box mill or column mill Very basic hobbyist
bench-mounted milling machines that feature a
head riding up and down on a column or box way.
 C-Frame mill These are larger, industrial
production mills. They feature a knee and fixed
spindle head that is only mobile vertically. They
are typically much more powerful than a turret mill,
featuring a separate hydraulic motor for integral
hydraulic power feeds in all directions, and a
twenty to fifty horsepower motor. Backlash
eliminators are almost always standard
equipment. They use large NMTB 40 or 50 tooling.
The tables on C-frame mills are usually 18" by 68"
or larger, to allow multiple parts to be machined at
the same time.
 Floor mill These have a row of rotary tables,
and a horizontal pendant spindle mounted on a set
of tracks that runs parallel to the table row. These
mills have predominantly been converted to CNC,
but some can still be found (if one can even find a
used machine available) under manual control.
The spindle carriage moves to each individual
table, performs the machining operations, and
moves to the next table while the previous table is
being set up for the next operation. Unlike other
mills, floor mills have movable floor units. A crane
 drops massive rotary tables, X-Y tables, etc., into
position for machining, allowing large and complex
custom milling operations.
 Gantry mill The milling head rides over two rails
(often steel tubes) which lie at each side of the
work surface.
 Horizontal boring mill Large, accurate bed
horizontal mills that incorporate many features
from various machine tools. They are
predominantly used to create large manufacturing
jigs, or to modify large, high precision parts. They
have a spindle stroke of several (usually between
four and six) feet, and many are equipped with a
tailstock to perform very long boring operations
without losing accuracy as the bore increases in
depth. A typical bed has X and Y travel, and is
between three and four feet square with a rotary
table or a larger rectangle without a table. The
pendant usually provides between four and eight
feet of vertical movement. Some mills have a large
(30" or more) integral facing head. Right angle
rotary tables and vertical milling attachments are
available for further flexibility.
 Jig borer Vertical mills that are built to bore
holes, and very light slot or face milling. They are
typically bed mills with a long spindle throw. The
beds are more accurate, and the handwheels are
 graduated down to .0001" for precise hole
placement.
 Knee mill or knee-and-column mill refers to
any milling machine whose x-y table rides up and
down the column on a vertically adjustable knee.
This includes Bridgeports.
 Planer-style mill Large mills built in the same
configuration as planers except with a milling
spindle instead of a planing head. This term is
growing dated as planers themselves are largely a
thing of the past.
 Ram-type mill This can refer to any mill that has
a cutting head mounted on a sliding ram. The
spindle can be oriented either vertically or
horizontally. In practice most mills with rams also
involve swiveling ability, whether or not it is called
"turret" mounting. The Bridgeportconfiguration can
be classified as a vertical-head ram-type mill. Van
Norman specialized in ram-type mills through most
of the 20th century. Since the wide dissemination
of CNC machines, ram-type mills are still made in
the Bridgeport configuration (with either manual or
CNC control), but the less common variations
(such as were built by Van Norman, Index, and
others) have died out, their work being done now
by either Bridgeport-form mills or machining
centers.
 Turret mill More commonly referred to as
Bridgeport-type milling machines. The spindle can
be aligned in many different positions for a very
versatile, if somewhat less rigid machine.
[edit]Alternate terminology
A milling machine is often called
a mill by machinists. The archaic term miller was
commonly used in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
[2]

Since the 1960s there has developed an overlap of

usage between the terms milling
machine and machining center. NC/CNC
machining centers evolved from milling machines,
which is why the terminology evolved gradually with
considerable overlap that still persists. The
distinction, when one is made, is that a machining
center is a mill with features that pre-CNC mills
never had, especially an automatic tool changer
(ATC) that includes a tool magazine (carousel), and
sometimes an automatic pallet changer (APC). In
typical usage, all machining centers are mills, but
not all mills are machining centers; only mills with
ATCs are machining centers.
[edit]Computer numerical control
Thin wall milling of aluminum using a water based cutting fluid
on the milling cutter
Most CNC milling machines (also called machining
centers) are computer controlled vertical mills with
the ability to move the spindle vertically along the Z-
axis. This extra degree of freedom permits their use
in diesinking, engraving applications,
and 2.5D surfaces such as relief sculptures. When
combined with the use of conical tools or a ball nose
cutter, it also significantly improves milling precision
without impacting speed, providing a cost-efficient
alternative to most flat-surface hand-engraving work.

Five-axis machining center with rotating table and computer

interface
CNC machines can exist in virtually any of the forms
of manual machinery, like horizontal mills. The most
advanced CNC milling-machines, the multiaxis
machine, add two more axes in addition to the three
normal axes (XYZ). Horizontal milling machines also
have a C or Q axis, allowing the horizontally
mounted workpiece to be rotated, essentially
allowing asymmetric and eccentricturning. The
fifth axis (B axis) controls the tilt of the tool itself.
When all of these axes are used in conjunction with
each other, extremely complicated geometries, even
organic geometries such as a human head can be
made with relative ease with these machines. But
the skill to program such geometries is beyond that
of most operators. Therefore, 5-axis milling
machines are practically always programmed
with CAM.
With the declining price of computers and open
source CNC software, the entry price of CNC
machines has plummeted.

High speed steel with cobalt endmills used for cutting

operations in a milling machine.
[edit]Tooling
The accessories and cutting tools used on machine
tools (including milling machines) are referred to in
aggregate by the mass noun "tooling". There is a
high degree of standardization of the tooling used
with CNC milling machines, and a lesser degree with
manual milling machines.
Milling cutters for specific applications are held in
various tooling configurations.
CNC milling machines nearly always use SK (or
ISO), CAT, BT or HSK tooling. SK tooling is the most
common in Europe, while CAT tooling, sometimes
called V-Flange Tooling, is the oldest and probably
most common type in the USA. CAT tooling was
invented by Caterpillar Inc. of Peoria, Illinois, in
order to standardize the tooling used on their
machinery. CAT tooling comes in a range of sizes
designated as CAT-30, CAT-40, CAT-50, etc. The
number refers to the Association for Manufacturing
Technology (formerly the National Machine Tool
Builders Association (NMTB)) Taper size of the tool.
A CAT-40 toolholder.

A boring head on a Morse taper shank.

An improvement on CAT Tooling is BT Tooling,
which looks similar and can easily be confused with
CAT tooling. Like CAT Tooling, BT Tooling comes in
a range of sizes and uses the same NMTB body
taper. However, BT tooling is symmetrical about the
spindle axis, which CAT tooling is not. This gives BT
tooling greater stability and balance at high speeds.
One other subtle difference between these two
toolholders is the thread used to hold the pull stud.
CAT Tooling is all Imperial thread and BT Tooling is
all Metric thread. Note that this affects the pull stud
only, it does not affect the tool that they can hold,
both types of tooling are sold to accept both Imperial
and metric sized tools.
SK and HSK tooling, sometimes called "Hollow
Shank Tooling", is much more common in Europe
where it was invented than it is in the United States.
It is claimed that HSK tooling is even better than BT
Tooling at high speeds. The holding mechanism for
HSK tooling is placed within the (hollow) body of the
tool and, as spindle speed increases, it expands,
gripping the tool more tightly with increasing spindle
speed. There is no pull stud with this type of tooling.
For manual milling machines, there is less
standardization, because a greater plurality of
formerly competing standards exist. Newer and
larger manual machines usually use NMTB tooling.
This tooling is somewhat similar to CAT tooling but
requires a drawbar within the milling machine.
Furthermore, there are a number of variations with
NMTB tooling that make interchangeability
troublesome. The older a machine, the greater the
plurality of standards that may apply
(e.g.,Morse, Jarno, Brown & Sharpe, Van Norman,
and other less common builder-specific tapers).
However, two standards that have seen especially
wide usage are the Morse #2 and the R8, whose
prevalence was driven by the popularity of the mills
built by Bridgeport Machines of Bridgeport,
Connecticut. These mills so dominated the market
for such a long time that "Bridgeport" is virtually
synonymous with "manual milling machine". Most of
the machines that Bridgeport made between 1938
and 1965 used a Morse taper #2, and from about
1965 onward most used an R8 taper.
[edit]History
[edit]1810s-1830s

This milling machine was long credited to Eli Whitney and

dated to circa 1818. From the 1910s through the 1940s, this
version of its provenance was widely published. In the 1950s
and 1960s, various historians of technology mostly discredited
the view of this machine as the first miller and possibly even
of Whitney as its builder. Nonetheless, it is still an important
early milling machine, regardless of its exact provenance
details.

The Middletown milling machine of circa 1818, associated

with Robert Johnson and Simeon North.
The milling machine built by James Nasmyth between 1829
and 1831 for milling the six sides of a hex nut using an
indexing fixture.
Milling machines evolved from the practice of rotary
filing—that is, running a circular cutter with file-like
teeth in the headstock of a lathe. Rotary filing and,
later, true milling were developed to reduce time and
effort spent hand-filing. The full story of milling
machine development may never be known,
because much early development took place in
individual shops where few records were kept for
posterity. However, the broad outlines are known, as
summarized below.
Rotary filing long predated milling. A rotary file
by Jacques de Vaucanson, circa 1760, is well
known.[3][4] It is clear that milling machines as a
distinct class of machine tool (separate from lathes
running rotary files) first appeared between 1814
and 1818. The centers of earliest development of
true milling machines were two federal armories of
the U.S. (Springfield andHarpers Ferry) together
with the various private armories and inside
contractors that sharedturnover of skilled workmen
with them.
Between 1912 and 1916, Joseph W. Roe, a
respected founding father of machine tool historians,
credited Eli Whitney (one of the private arms makers
mentioned above) with producing the first true
milling machine.[5][6] By 1918, he considered it
"Probably the first milling machine ever built—
certainly the oldest now in existence
[…]."[7] However, subsequent scholars, including
Robert S. Woodbury[8] and others,[9] have improved
upon Roe's early version of the history and suggest
that just as much credit—in fact, probably more—
belongs to various other inventors, including Robert
Johnson of Middletown, Connecticut; Captain John
H. Hall of the Harpers Ferry armory; Simeon North of
the Staddle Hill factory in Middletown; Roswell Lee
of the Springfield armory; and Thomas Blanchard.
(Several of the men mentioned above are
sometimes described on the internet as "the inventor
of the first milling machine" or "the inventor of
interchangeable parts". Such claims are
oversimplified, as these technologies evolved over
time among many people.)
Peter Baida,[9] citing Edward A. Battison's article "Eli
Whitney and the Milling Machine," which was
published in the Smithsonian Journal of History in
1966, exemplifies the dispelling of the "Great Man"
image of Whitney by historians of technology
working in the 1950s and 1960s. He quotes Battison
as concluding that "There is no evidence that
Whitney developed or used a true milling machine."
Baida says, "The so-called Whitney machine of 1818
seems actually to have been made after Whitney's
death in 1825." Baida cites Battison's suggestion
that the first true milling machine was made not by
Whitney, but by Robert Johnson of Middletown.[9]
The late teens of the 19th century were a pivotal
time in the history of machine tools, as the period of
1814 to 1818 is also the period during which several
contemporary pioneers (Fox, Murray, andRoberts)
were developing the planer, and as with the milling
machine, the work being done in various shops was
undocumented for various reasons (partially
because of proprietary secrecy, and also simply
because no one was taking down records for
posterity).
James Nasmyth built a milling machine very
advanced for its time between 1829 and 1831.[10] It
was tooled to mill the six sides of a hex nut that was
mounted in a six-way indexing fixture.
A milling machine built and used in the shop of Gay
& Silver (aka Gay, Silver, & Co) in the 1830s was
influential because it employed a better method of
vertical positioning than earlier machines. For
example, Whitney's machine (the one that Roe
considered the very first) and others did not make
provision for vertical travel of the knee. Evidently,
the workflow assumption behind this was that the
machine would be set up with shims, vise, etc. for a
certain part design, and successive parts did not
require vertical adjustment (or at most would need
only shimming). This indicates that early thinking
about milling machines was as production machines,
not toolroom machines.
In these early years, milling was often viewed as
only a roughing operation to be followed by finishing
with a hand file. The idea of reducinghand filing was
more important than replacing it.
[edit]1840s-1860

A typical Lincoln miller. The configuration was established in

the 1850s. (This example was built by Pratt & Whitney,
probably 1870s or 1880s.)
Some of the key men in milling machine
development during this era included Frederick W.
Howe,Francis A. Pratt, Elisha K. Root, and others.
(These same men during the same era were also
busy developing the state of the art in turret lathes.
Howe's experience at Gay & Silver in the 1840s
acquainted him with early versions of both machine
tools. His machine tool designs were later built
at Robbins & Lawrence, the Providence Tool
Company, and Brown & Sharpe.) The most
successful milling machine design to emerge during
this era was the Lincoln miller, which rather than
being a specific make and model of machine tool is
truly a family of tools built by various companies on
a common configuration over several decades. It
took its name from the first company to put one on
the market, George S. Lincoln & Company (formerly
the Phoenix Iron Works), whose first one was built in
1855 for the Colt armory.[11]
During this era there was a continued blind spot in
milling machine design, as various designers failed
to develop a truly simple and effective means of
providing slide travel in all three of the archetypal
milling axes (X, Y, and Z—or as they were known in
the past, longitudinal, traverse, and vertical). Vertical
positioning ideas were either absent or
underdeveloped. The Lincoln miller's spindle could
be raised and lowered, but the original idea behind
its positioning was to be set up in position and then
run, as opposed to being moved frequently while
running. Like a turret lathe, it was a repetitive-
production machine, with each skilled setup followed
by extensive fairly low skill operation.
[edit]1860s

Brown & Sharpe's groundbreaking universal milling machine,

1861.
In 1861, Frederick W. Howe, while working for the
Providence Tool Company, asked Joseph R. Brown
of Brown & Sharpe for a solution to the problem of
milling spirals, such as the flutes of twist drills. These
were usually filed by hand at the time.[12] (Helical
planing existed but was by no means common.)
Brown designed a "universal milling machine" that,
starting from its first sale in March 1862, was wildly
successful. It solved the problem of 3-axis travel
(i.e., the axes that we now call XYZ) much more
elegantly than had been done in the past, and it
allowed for the milling of spirals using an indexing
head fed in coordination with the table feed. The
term "universal" was applied to it because it was
ready for any kind of work, including toolroom work,
and was not as limited in application as previous
designs. (Howe had designed a "universal miller" in
1852, but Brown's of 1861 is the one considered a
groundbreaking success.)[12]
Brown also developed and patented (1864) the
design of formed milling cutters in which successive
sharpenings of the teeth do not disturb the geometry
of the form.[4]
The advances of the 1860s opened the floodgates
and ushered in modern milling practice.
[edit]1870s to World War I

A typical universal milling machine of the early 20th century.

Suitable for toolroom, jobbing, or production use.
In these decades, Brown & Sharpe and
the Cincinnati Milling Machine Company dominated
the milling machine field. However, hundreds of
other firms also built milling machines at the time,
and many were significant in various ways. Besides
a wide variety of specialized production machines,
the archetypal multipurpose milling machine of the
late 19th and early 20th centuries was a heavy
knee-and-column horizontal-spindle design with
power table feeds, indexing head, and a stout
overarm to support the arbor. The evolution of
machine design was driven not only by inventive
spirit but also by the constant evolution of milling
cutters that saw milestone after milestone from 1860
through World War I.[13][14]
[edit]World War I and Interwar Period
Around the end of World War I, machine tool control
advanced in various ways that laid the groundwork
for later CNC technology. The jig borer popularized
the ideas of coordinate dimensioning (dimensioning
of all locations on the part from a single reference
point); working routinely in "tenths" (ten-thousandths
of an inch, 0.0001") as an everyday machine
capability; and using the control to go straight from
drawing to part, circumventing jig-making. In 1920
the new tracer design of J.C. Shaw was applied to
Keller tracer milling machines for die-sinking via the
three-dimensional copying of a template. This made
diesinking faster and easier just as dies were in
higher demand than ever before, and was very
helpful for large steel dies such as those used to
stamp sheets in automobile manufacturing. Such
machines translated the tracer movements to input
for servos that worked the machine leadscrews or
hydraulics. They also spurred the development
of antibacklash leadscrew nuts. All of the above
concepts were new in the 1920s but became routine
in the NC/CNC era. By the 1930s, incredibly large
and advanced milling machines existed, such as the
Cincinnati Hydro-Tel, that presaged today's CNC
mills in every respect except for CNC control itself.
[edit]Bridgeport milling machine
In 1936, Rudolph Bannow (1897–1962) conceived of
a major improvement to the milling machine.[15] His
company commenced manufacturing a new knee-
and-column vertical mill in 1938. This was
the Bridgeport milling machine, often called a
ram-type or turret-type mill because its head has
sliding-ram and rotating-turret mounting. The
machine became so popular that many other
manufacturers created copies and variants.
Furthermore, its name came to connote any
such variant. The Bridgeport offered enduring
advantages over previous models. It was small
enough, light enough, and affordable enough to be a
practical acquisition for even the smallest machine
shop businesses, yet it was also smartly designed,
versatile, well-built, and rigid. Its various directions of
sliding and pivoting movement allowed the head to
approach the work from any angle. The Bridgeport's
design became the model for manual milling
machines, used by several generations of small-
enterprisemachinists. An estimated quarter-million
Bridgeport milling machines were built.[15]
[edit]1940s-1970s
By 1940, automation via cams, such as in screw
machines and automatic chuckers, had already
been very well developed for decades. Beginning in
the 1930s, ideas involving servomechanisms had
been in the air, but it was especially during and
immediately after World War IIthat they began to
germinate (see also Numerical control > History).
These were soon combined with the emerging
technology of digitalcomputers. This technological
development milieu, spanning from the immediate
pre–World War II period into the 1950s, was
powered by the military capital expenditures that
pursued contemporary advancements in the
directing of gun and rocket artillery and in missile
guidance—other applications in which humans
wished to control the kinematics/dynamics of large
machines quickly, precisely, and automatically.
Sufficient R&D spending probably would not have
happened within the machine tool industry alone; but
it was for the latter applications that the will and
ability to spend was available. Once the
development was underway, it was eagerly applied
to machine tool control in one of the many post-
WWII instances of technology transfer.
In 1952, numerical control reached the
developmental stage of laboratory reality. The first
NC machine tool was a Cincinnati Hydrotel milling
machine retrofitted with a scratch-built NC control
unit. It was reported in Scientific American,[16] just as
another groundbreaking milling machine, the Brown
& Sharpe universal, had been in 1862.
During the 1950s, numerical control moved
slowly from the laboratory into commercial service.
For its first decade, it had rather limited impact
outside of aerospace work. But during the 1960s
and 1970s, NC evolved into CNC, data storage and
input media evolved, computer processing power
and memory capacity steadily increased, and NC
and CNC machine tools gradually disseminated from
an environment of huge corporations and mainly
aerospace work to the level of medium-sized
corporations and a wide variety of products. NC and
CNC's drastic advancement of machine tool control
deeply transformed the culture of manufacturing.
[17]
 The details (which are beyond the scope of this
article) have evolved immensely with every passing
decade.
[edit]1980s-present
Computers and CNC machine tools continue to
develop rapidly. The personal computer revolution
has a great impact on this development. By the late
1980s small machine shops had desktop computers
and CNC machine tools. After that hobbyists began
obtaining CNC mills and lathes.