THE PAPER PRESENTS THE ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS, GENERAL PROCEDURES AND DIFFERENT METHODS USED TO PROVIDE THE ENGINEERING MANUFACTURING WITH THE INFORMATION OF MACHINABILITY OF WORKPIECE MATERIALS. THE EMPHASIS OF THIS PAPER IS TO ANALYZE THE SHORT TIME MACHINABILITY TEST--A CONSTANT FEED FORCE METHOD, CURRENTLY THE MOST ACTIVE AREAS OF RESEARCH IN THE FIELD. A COMPUTER DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR SAMPLING DATA OF DISPLACEMENT IS PRESENTED WITH DETAILS AND IN GRAPH. USING THE LEAST SQUARES TECHNIQUE, THE AUTHOR DESCRIBES THE FEED RATE AS A FUNCTION OF TIME MATHEMATICALLY. THE INITIAL FEED RATE AND THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF TOOL DECELERATION ARE PRIMARY MACHINABILITY MEASURES. SUCH A SET OF SYSTEMATICALLY PERFORMED TESTS WOULD BE NECESSARY TO DEVELOP UNIFORM TEST METHOD OF MACHINABILITY.