The main difference between a lathe and a mill is that on a lathe, the work turns and the cutting tool is stationary, while on a mill, the tool turns and the work is stationary. Because of the tremendous number of operations that can be performed on a vertical mill, it is commonly regarded as the most important tool in the modern machine shop...the workhorse of the industry.
Jobs for a mill...
At first glance, a vertical mill looks similar to a drill press, but there are some important differences; such as, a spindle that can take side loads as well as end loads and an accurate method of moving the work in relation to the spindle on all three axes. Sherline milling machines can perform all of the tasks and operations that a large commercial machine can perform. Operations such as fly cutting, precision drilling, and boring are all routine tasks for the Sherline mill. Because the tool turns rather than the work, much larger parts can be worked on in a mill, and these parts need not be round. The work is securely held, thus extremely accurate hole patterns can be drilled or bored. The longer X-axis throw also increases the machine?s versatility over that of the lathe with the vertical milling column attachment. It is an extremely rigid, accurate tool that accomplishes tough machining jobs with ease.