A CNC lathe/mill combo combines the regular CNC lathe together with a milling machine head to enable both turning and milling operations to be completed in one setup and machine. Often referred to as a CNC mill-turn machine.
The milling head fitted to the lathe is capable of a wide variety of operations making this a very versatile machine tool. The milling head is capable of milling keyways, splines, slots, helixes, flats, squares, hexes, and drilling holes to produce finished parts not requiring additional machining in a dedicated milling machine. In some circumstances with some specialised CNC lathes with milling heads, the milling cutter can be used as the primary cutting tool.
The applications for CNC lathe/mill combo are wide and varied. Some examples of CNC lathe/mill machined products are: Stub axles with keyways machined, Shafts having spanner flats or hexes machined, valve spools with bypass holes drilled, shafts with drive squares milled, archimedes screws and helix shafts, shafts with splines.