CNC milling Introduction
The first milling machine in the world was invented by Eli Whitney around two hun-
dred years ago. It was capable of manual and partially automated milling. With in-
creasing industrialization, milling machines became more powerful and precise,
and the first mass-production machines came into use around 1900.
Control systems capable of automatically executing complete programs appeared
around the middle of the 20th Century. This meant that machine operators no longer
had to painstakingly set up each step by hand, so manufacturing times and
sources of production errors decreased rapidly as a result. The advent of modern
computers and improved machine technology now means that most people can
perform simple machine-based milling without having to go through specialist
training first.
Milling technology has not only become easier to operate, it has also become a
lot cheaper too, making it an affordable option for hobbyists and model makers
everywhere. It is now possible to home-build components that used to be either
expensive or simply impossible to source. Improved technology also makes it pos-
sible to create parts with tolerances of just a few hundredths of a millimeter.
