In manufacturing and toolmaking, spindle is a general term for the main rotating axis of a machine tool, which usually has a shaft at its heart. The shaft itself is called a spindle, but also, in shop-floor practice, the word often is used metonymically to refer to the entire rotary unit, including not only the shaft itself, but its bearings and anything attached to it (chuck, etc.).
Examples include:
- On a lathe (whether wood lathe or metal lathe), the spindle is the heart of the headstock.
- In rotating-cutter woodworking machinery, the spindle is the part on which shaped cutters are mounted for cutting features (such as rebates, beads, and curves) into mouldings and similar millwork.
- Similarly, in rotating-cutter metalworking machine tools (such as milling machines and drill presses), the spindle is the shaft to which the tool (such as a drill bit or milling cutter) is attached (for example, via a chuck).
- Varieties of spindles include grinding spindles, electric spindles, machine tool spindles, low-speed spindles, high speed spindles, and more.
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