Peripheral milling process productivity or quality can be improved by controlling either cutting force or contour error. While each means for improvement is often addressed individually, efforts to control both aspects simultaneously are less common in the literature. This article describes an approach to control both the contour error and force using an adaptive robust controller. The axes dynamic behavior and tool deflection are considered as the two major sources of error expressly considered in the control design and are embedded in a global task coordinate frame representation of contour error. The adaptive control component maintains high-performance control of both force and contour error in the presence of significant model error or external disturbances. The control approach is implemented on a three-axis machine tool for validation. Experimental results indicate that significant improvements to both contour error and force regulation have been achieved.