Selecting the right material is a crucial step in the design process. Since almost every material with sufficient hardness can be machined, CNC offers a very large range of material options to choose from. For engineering applications, metals and plastics are most relevant. 

CNC machining is primarily used with metals and metal alloys. Metal can be used for both the manufacturing of custom one-off parts and prototypes and for low-to-medium batch production. Aluminum 6061 is by far the most used material in CNC machining.

Plastics are lightweight materials with a wide range of physical properties. They are often used for their chemical resistance and electrical insulation properties. Plastics are commonly CNC machined for prototyping purposes prior to Injection Molding.

In the past time, we have learned several machining methods of CNC, including 3 AXIS CNC, 5 AXIS CNC, CNC laith and CNC EDM.