The formation of burrs in Machining Operations occurs by three Basic Mechanisms: 1) Lateral Extrusion of material 2) Bending of the chip 3) Tearing of the chip form the workpiece Each of these mechanisms has been studied analytically and compared to experimental results. The agreement between predictions and measurements has been found to be close. Drilling, milling, grinding, and turning burrs were produced in 303Se stainless steel and their properties were related to tool geometry, feedrates, and depth of cut. One thousand measurements were made and subsequently analyzed by analysis of variance techniques. The properties measured include burr length and thickness. Both the theory and the empirical results indicate that burrs cannot be prevented by changing machine variables. Burr size can be minimized, however, by appropriate machining conditions.