Nanotech Systems (Moore's current name) make a high-precision drum lathe with 1nm positioning precision, with a 2600mm working area [1].
1 part in 2,600,000,000.
Dan Gelbart built his own lathe with <1µm final part tolerance [2].
Within a few thousandths of an inch isn't very impressive. I can hold 1 thou on a cheap manual lathe (Grizzly G0602 10"x22" working area), with a decent amount of care. Holding to tenths (1/10000") is impossible with the equipment I can afford though.
That's resolution, not precision or repeatability, although such high resolution is very impressive. I'm not sure how exactly a glass scale is supposed to work to 34 pm, I assume these use analog interpolation between marks or perhaps some kind of interference mechanism.
1 part in 2,600,000,000.
Dan Gelbart built his own lathe with <1µm final part tolerance [2].
Within a few thousandths of an inch isn't very impressive. I can hold 1 thou on a cheap manual lathe (Grizzly G0602 10"x22" working area), with a decent amount of care. Holding to tenths (1/10000") is impossible with the equipment I can afford though.
[1] https://nanotechsys.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/HDL2600-B... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFrVdoOhu1Q