PURPOSE: To reduce the occurrence of damage and machining irregularities as well as to aim at improvements in quality, by embedding a first magnet in a machining table surface and a second magnet in a holding surface of a work holder, respectively, while polishing a work in a way of floating it off the table top by means of repulsion inherent in each magnet.

CONSTITUTION: Removing a work holder 6, a semiconductor wafer is held on a bottom surface part and inserted into a holder 4. Then an electromagnet 7 is excited, and when its exposed side is set down to an S pole, the magnet 7 and the holder 6 are repulsed with each other whereby the holder 6 floats off a machining table 1. Next, the machining table 1 and a spur gear 3 are rotated, and when simultaneously fluid abrasive grains are fed onto the table 1, both holder 4 and 6 rotate each whereby these abrasive grains get in space between the wafer and the table 1 at high speed following rotation in the machining table 1, thus polishing the wafer takes place. Like this, even in time of starting and finishing, the wafer floats off the table without fail and thereby on no consideration should it come into contact with the machining table 1 so that the occurrence of any damage to a clutch or the like is well reduced, improving a yield rate in production and keeping it horizontal, and machining irregularities is thus reduced, besides improvements in quality.