A single-factor comparison experiment of axial ultrasonic vibration turning and conventional turning of 316L stainless steel was carried out, and the influences of the ultrasonic amplitude and processing parameters (cutting speed, feed) on cutting force and surface roughness were studied. The experimental results show that using axial ultrasonic vibration turning can effectively reduce the cutting force, surface roughness and surface profile height; compared with conventional turning, the smaller the ultrasonic amplitude is, the more obvious the improvement effect of surface roughness is; when the feed rate is increased from 5 μm/r to 25 μm/r, the main cutting force and surface roughness of the axial ultrasonic vibration turning are reduced by 17%~21% and 21%~28% respectively compared with conventional turning; with the increase of cutting speed, the surface roughness and cutting force of the axial ultrasonic vibration turning firstly decrease and then increase, and there is an optimal cutting speed range, and the surface roughness can be reduced by 29.9%, and the cutting force can be reduced by 30.1%.