This research study focuses on the experimental analysis of the three-dimensional (3D) surface topography and surface roughness of the workpiece machined with ultrasonic vibration assisted turning (UAT) in comparison to conventional turning (CT). For the challenge that machining difficulties of 304 austenitic stainless steel (ASS 304) and high demands for the machined surface quality and machining precision represent, starting with cutting principle and processing technology, the ultrasonic vibration method is employed to scheme out a machining system of ultrasonic vibration assisted turning (MS-UAT). The experiments for turning the workpiece of ASS 304 are conducted with and without ultrasonic vibration using the designed MS-UAT, and then the 3D morphology evaluation parameters Sa and Sq are applied to characterize and analyse the machined surface. The experimental results obtained demonstrate that the process parameters in UAT of ASS 304 have obvious effect on the 3D surface topography and surface roughness of machined workpiece, and the appropriate choice of various process parameters, including ultrasonic amplitude, feed rate, depth of cut, and cutting speed, can enhance the machined surface quality efficiently to make the machining effect of UAT much better than that of CT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]