This study was aimed to investigate dynamic characteristics of a milling machine with horizontal spindle tooling system, which was feed through the linear feeding mechanism combined with the sliding guides and linear roller guide modulus. To predict the dynamic characteristics, we created finite element model of the milling machine with the introduction of the contact stiffness defined at the sliding and rolling interface, respectively. The results of the finite element simulations reveal that linear guides with different preloads greatly affect the dynamic responses of the horizontal spindle tool. The maximum dynamic compliance can be increased by 7.4 % in X-axis direction and increased by 12 % in Y-axis direction, respectively when the linear guides are changed from low to high preload. Overall, current results clearly illustrate that the proposed modeling approach of feeding mechanism can quantify the preload effect of the guideway system on the dynamic performance of a milling machine.
