Business / Machine Shop Glossary

Austenite: One of the basic steel microstructures wherein carbon is dissolved in iron.Austenite forms at elevated temperatures.

Automatic Stop: A device which may be attached to any of several parts of a machine tool to stop the operation of the machine at any predetermined point.

Axis: The line, real or imaginary, passing through the center of an object about which it could rotate: a point of reference.

Babbitt: An antifriction metal alloy used for bearing inserts: made of tin, antimony, lead and copper.

Back Gears: Gears fitted to a machine to increase the number of spindle speeds obtainable with a cone or step pulley belt drive.

Back Rake: The angular surface ground back from the cutting edge of cutting tools. On lathe cutting tools the rake is positive if the face slopes down from the cutting edge toward the shank and negativ . . . View Full Definition

Backlash: The lost motion or looseness (play) between the faces of meshing gears or threads.

Bandsaw: A power saw the blade of which is a continuous, narrow, steel band having teeth on one edge and passing over two large pulley wheels.

Bar Stock: Metal bars of various lengths, made in flat, hexagon, octagon, round and square shapes from which parts are machined.

Bastard: Threads, parts, tools and sizes that are not standard, such as bastard nuts, bastard plugs, bastard fittings, and so forth. The term also refers to a standard coarse-cut file.

Bearing: Rollers and balls placed between moving parts to reduce friction and wear.

Bed: One of the principal parts of a machine tool, having accurately machined ways or bearing surfaces for supporting and aligning other parts of the machine.

Bell Mouth: The flaring or tapering of a machined hole, usually made at the entrance end because of misalignment or spring of the cutting tool.

Bench Grinder: A small grinding machine for shaping and sharpening the cutting edges of tools.

Bevel: Any surface that is not at right angles to another surface. Also, the name given a tool used for measuring, laying out, or checking the accuracy of work machined at an angle or bevel.

Bit - Tool (Cutter): A hardened steel bar or plate that is shaped according to the operation to be performed and the material to be machined.

Blind Hole: A hole made in a workpiece that does not pass through it.

Body-Centered Cubic (BCC): One of the common types of unit cells described as a cube with an atom at each of the eight corners and a single atom at the center of the cell. This arrangement is typical of the ferritic f . . . View Full Definition

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