machining

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act or process of manufacturing or finishing a part using machine tools.

   Like a sculptor chipping away at stone to reveal a final shape, except precise machines do the cutting.

   The machining of aerospace components demands tolerances within a few microns.

   After machining, the surface was polished to remove any tool marks.

   Similarfabrication, tooling

   Note

   In workshop usage the process narrows to subtractive work. Material is cut away from a workpiece by turning, milling, drilling or grinding until the part reaches its specified dimensions and surface finish. It is often a finishing stage, so phrases like after machining mark a step in a sequence, and its natural companions are tolerances, tool marks and surface finish.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of machine.

   The plant is machining hundreds of components for the new order.

   They spent the afternoon machining the cylinder to exact specifications.

   Note

   One -ing form does double duty here, as participle and as gerund, and in both roles it keeps the verb's power to take a direct object: machining the cylinder, after machining the housing. That bare object is what separates it from the noun for the process, which needs of (the machining of the cylinder) and can even be pluralized as machinings. In workshop use the verb usually means shaping metal by cutting along machine-controlled toolpaths.

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