There are many types of milling machines such as:
- Knee Type. This type of milling cutter machine is easily recognizable because of a worktable that can be adjusted vertically and is mounted on a saddle while the knee is supporting it. The knee is made of cast which can be quite large and it is placed vertically on the column of the milling machine. It is strongly clamped in the column in a way that the spindle and head of the milling machine can be vertically adjusted for an efficient operation. For the vertical type of milling machine, the spindle is position in a vertical manner and is parallel to the face of the column while mounted on the sliding head which can be easily moved up and down manually or automatically. In case of vertical milling machines designed using a more modern technology, its entire head can be moved around which is suitable to be used in work pieces that needs angular surfaces. In order to achieve more precise cuts, the entire head as well as the turret can be turned in a 360 angle from its base.
- Universal Horizontal. This type of milling machine differs from the plain horizontal machine because it has an added table with a swivel housing that is positioned between the saddle and the table of the universal machine. With this addition, the table may be angled up to 45 degrees in both the helical and angular direction during the milling operations. Many attachments can be used on the universal machine like slotting, rack cutting, rotary table, special fixtures and indexing fixture.
- Ram Type. This type of milling machine can be differentiated from the rest because it has a spindle placed in a housing which can be moved along the column in order for the milling cutter to move back and fro in a horizontal direction. There are many types of ram milling machines but the two most commonly known are the universal and swivel cutter head.
- Universal Ram Type. Resembles the universal horizontal milling machine but the only difference is this one contains a spindle placed on top of a moving ram.