We don’t know about you, but any time we have an opportunity to witness a CNC machine perform its magic, we have to stop and stare. The precision with which a quality CNC machine running a sorted-out program brings a product to fruition is nothing short of magical; that’s exactly what stopped us in our tracks when we found this video.

We don’t know much about the cylinder head that’s featured or whether it’s simply an engineering exercise to demonstrate the capabilities of the CNC machine, but we can say that the process of this cylinder head’s creation–making something from what was essentially nothing more than a block of aluminum at the start–is fascinating.

Starting with a simple block of aluminum, we witness nearly every single step of the machining process during this short video. By the end you’ll see a beautifully-crafted, four-valve cylinder head, displaying a level of machining detail in the ports, combustion chamber, and even on the external surfaces that brings the word ‘beautiful’ to mind. Even the bolt holes have threads cut into them.

The ballet of the mill’s swivel rotary table dancing back and forth underneath the tool head, combined with the speed and precision of the machining operations has us wondering how many hours went into designing the head itself.

Even on a state-of-the-art mill like this, the machining process can take hours to complete properly. One thing is for certain–current machining capabilities eclipse what was possible even in the recent past.

Watching this video makes you ponder how the automotive engine ever became popular; it must have taken weeks to machine some of the first examples given yesteryear’s limited equipment.