The most versatile machine is without doubt the vertical milling machine. It can be used for facing, boring, drilling, chamfering and much more, with end mills, side cutters and many other tools. A milling machine consists of a vertically mounted motor, a spindle, a table that can be moved with good precision, and a column or frame that holds everything together. Milling machines use small cutters such as end mills and tapered cutters, and can also drive large cutters, involute gear cutters and other, even more complex cutting tools.
The cutters are held in high-precision collets mounted in the spindle, allowing cuts to be made to a very high degree of accuracy. Drill chucks can also be mounted in the spindle to carry out conventional drilling. There are many types of milling machine, which can make choosing one difficult. The smallest is the mini mill, used by people who make models such as model steam engines and model railways.
Next is the mill-drill, a machine that combines features of a drill press and a vertical mill. Each machine has a power range within which it can operate safely. At the top end is the vertical knee mill, often called a Bridgeport after the company that first made it popular.
Industrial machines can weigh several tonnes and consist of a motor, a spindle, a frame and a base on which the table is mounted, with a size proportional to their power.