In at least one embodiment, a method of analyzing and characterizing the thermal growth of a CNC machine is provided. The method may include mounting an artifact having a bore onto a CNC machine and performing a test cycle. The test cycle may include probing the bore of the artifact to determine its location relative to the CNC machine and performing a dry cycle including one or more CNC machining processes. The method may further include calculating a deviation of the bore location from a reference relative location between the bore and CNC machine. The method may be used to improve, troubleshoot, or assess the effectiveness of CNC machine thermal compensation mechanisms. The method may start at ambient temperature and include repeating test cycles until a steady state temperature is reached in the machine.