What Is The Difference Between Milling And Drilling?

What’s the Difference Between Milling and Drilling?

The main difference between Milling vs. Drilling is that drilling is a process of making a hole into a solid surface. While, milling is a process where you create features like slots, walls, fins, webs, etc.

Here are some of the major differences between milling and drilling:

• Drilling uses vertical motions with a rotating drill bit to create holes in a job. On the other hand, milling uses the vertical movement of a mill cutter along with the horizontal movement of the workpiece. Due to this additional horizontal movement, the milling machine has a great variety of uses.

  
  

• During the drilling operation, your workpiece remains fixed, in contrast to the milling operation, where you can move your workpiece in several directions.

  
  

• The machining tool used for drilling is called a drill bit, while the tool used for milling is called a milling cutter.

  
  

• Another major difference is that the drilling machine usually uses Morse taper to hold the drill bit & it can handle the only axial load. If you apply a radial load, the tool will come off. In milling, the tool or tool holder is locked using some form of the clamping device.

  
  

• During the drilling operation, you have to keep the spindle’s rotational speed low or else it will be difficult to remove the chip. However, you can keep the high speed when you are doing milling.

  
  

• You can use drill machines to cut wood, metal, plastic, and other surfaces. On the contrary, milling machines are mostly used to cut metals only.

  
  

• Drill machines come in all sizes from small to heavy-duty, some of them are mobile-friendly, which means you can carry them anywhere you want. On the other hand, milling machines are not portable; you have to carry your workpiece to the milling machine.

  
  

• Drilling machines are easy to use and they have a longer life than milling machines.

Conclusion

Milling and drilling both machines have their pros and cons, that’s why I recommend you to choose the right machine by keeping your needs in mind to get the most out of it.