Sometimes people ask me: "I tried your calculator, and i liked it, but it seems to me a little too aggressive...do you actually do any testing?"

Well, to those I say that not only i do testing, but i run production jobs 100% calculated with my own HSMAdvisor.

Many machinists say that nothing beats an experienced operator holding his hand on feed hold button and playing with speed and feed override trying to find the "sweet spot" where cutting speed and feed rate are maximized and chatter is eliminated or reduced.

And it is correct, but not any machinist is experienced or actually knows what he is doing.
Many machinists also finish their apprenticeship program and never learn a single thing about new tooling types and materials since. They bag years of experience, but their knowledge is stuck on a level it was when they first got their license.

Also not a single person can possibly know cutting conditions for hundreds of materials and remember all of the jobs he had ever ran.

This is where tool database comes in.

Not only can you save tools to cut down and in many cases eliminate entering parameters for every calculation.
But you can (and should) save cutting data for each particular case.

A single tool entry can contain an unlimited number of cuts attached to it, so machinist never has to remember everything.

Here is a i made video of slotting D2 with variable helix hi-performace endmill.

Material: D-2 Tool Steel 200-250 HB
Tool: 0.500in 4FL Carbide TiAlN coated Solid HP End Mill
Speed: 360.0 SFM/ 2751.6 RPM
Feed: 0.0023 ipt/ 0.0094 ipr/ 25.76 ipm

Engagement:  DOC=0.330 in   WOC=0.500 in

Quite often in order to start cutting in x-y direction you need to first plunge into the material.

Here is a compliled list of recommendations for different kinds of plunging that works in most if not all cases.

Plunge with center cutting endmill:

• Regular Chipload/Number of flutes , half the cutting speed. (for 3 flute endmill divide normal chipload by 3)

Ramp:

• Ramp Radius (For Helical ramping): .90-.95 of cutter radius

• Ramp Angle: Indexed/non center cutting endmills: 1-2.5 degree; Center cutting endmills- Up to 45 deg

Ramp chipload ajustment for 4 flute Center cutting endmills:

• 0-2.5deg=100% of normal feedrate
• 2.5-5deg=75% of normal feedrate
• 5-15deg=50% of normal feedrate
• 15-30deg=25% of normal feedrate
• 30-45deg=5% of normal feedrate

Dont forget to reduce cutting speed for ramping above 5deg by half!

I have just released HSMAdvisor build 0.017!

First you should uninstall the previous version.
As some of the data files are not compatible with the version 0.017

After downloading and installing it you will receive another 30 days to play with my software.

New things:

• A bunch of new materials
  Structural steels added 1035, 1045 and some other
• Grooving turning tool added to the tool list
• Several Tools and Cuts can now be selected at the same time and deleted or moved to a different Library
• Double click on myCut ToolLibrary now causes the Tool/Cut to load
• HSM Cutting speed compensation now only turns on when HSM/Chip Thinning is checked.
• Huge number of bugs fixed.

Get it HERE ->http://hsmadvisor.com/

Enjoy and don't forget to leave your feedback.
You can do so support forums.

Unfortunately because of high number of spam messages You will have to register first (unless you already did)

Forums are located at http://zero-divide.net/index.php?page=forums&shell_id=170&category_id=1123, a simple registration on my web site (zero-divide.net, register) allows you to post your questions/feature requests/suggestions.

Need i remind you that registered users who actively participate get full version for FREE?

Well, subject says it all.

It seems like the server performance is back to to its original level of medium crappiness.

In the mean time i was able to improve performance a little bit while investigating the reasons for the slowdown.

Which is in a way a good thing.

Now this proprietary site loads faster than joomla!

Sigh only if i could afford better hosting.

Lately there has been a considerable lag in server performance.

Apparently the company that hosts this web site is transferring its data-server to another facility.

They promise faster and better experience than ever before.

Please hang tight and wait a for couple of days. 

They promise things will get better soon.

As you know the long-awaited standalone version of FSWizard is being prepared for the release right now.

I am changing the name it is going to be marketed under.

Down the line The product is going to consist of many modules.
And in order to give it a name that would encompass a wide variety of tools under one umbrella it has been decided to change the name of the solution to HSMAdvisor

A new website is being constructed right now around new product

It is going to be located at HSMAdvisor.com

But we are not forgetting where we came from.

FSWizard is becomming one module inside HSMAdvisor solution.
So you will still see FSWiz name popping up here and there.

Also as i said earlyer and robably against better judgement i will keep HSMAdvisor(FSWizard):Online Calulator you have come to love and depend on free for everyone to use.

Speeds and Feeds by HSMAdvisor (FSWizard)
Material: A-36 Hot Roll Steel 160-220 HB
Tool: 0.500in 4FL Carbide TiAlN coated Solid HP End Mill (WIDIA Metal Removal Maestro)
1" Stickout, 0.625 Flute Length
Speed: 528.0 SFM/ 4035.7 RPM
Feed: 0.0028 ipt/ 0.0114 ipr/ 46.00 ipm
Chip Thickness: 0.0028 in
Engagement:  DOC=0.250 in   WOC=0.500 in

Anybody could use a pair (or more) of push clamps around their shop.

Those handy devices convert your machine' table into a huge vise.
They are pretty mush irreplaceable when machining plates and other oversized parts that no ordinary vise will fit.

Several vendors offer their clamps. But many of them tend to be pricey. And those that are not, lack in quality.

And to be honest with you, it does not look like they are worth the amount of money their seller is trying to get from you.

In the mean time their design is simple enough to fabricate in any shop.

Here is a picture of two of four clamps i made for myself on manual mill withing 2 hours- sure beats buying mitee-bitees for 175$ a pop!!!

Made out of 5/8" thick D2 plate

1" long Shoulder in the front is tapped to 3/8-16 NC.

Slot for 1/2-13 bolt is sloped towards the back to prevent clamp from sliding under clamping pressure.

A thick 1/4" washer is used to protect T-slot from damage by the socket head.

I ll try to get more pictures tomorrow.

IMAG0540.jpg Drawing

FSWizard:Online has a new feature.

Thanks to a suggestion made by Kennis on Suppport Forums we now have basic thread milling speed/feed online solution.

Take it for a spin guys.

If you have anything else to say regarding this feature, or maybe some suggestions please reply to this forum thread http://zero-divide.net/index.php?page=forums&shell_id=170&article_id=4280

And keep your suggestions rolling!

Where do we stand and how did we get here.

When i first started FSWizard project one year ago in December 2011. I felt the need to upgrade my knowledge and skill-set regarding speeds, feeds and best cutting conditions.

Other calculators available at that time simply did not cut it for me.

One of them did not account for such important parameters as tool length.

The other did not care about such crucial tool geometry features like helix angle, shank diameter, lead angle and so on.

As a result i have endeavoured on a mission to build the best calculator that would accurately predict cutting forces, cutter deflection and suggest best cutting modes using all available tool data for multitude of combinations of work-piece/tool materials, coatings and tool types.

It has been a year of research, building cutter and material models, applying REAL MACHINING experience.

All results were tested in REAL PRODUCTION environment.

Today thanks to FSWizard, machines i work on produce 200%-300% more parts per day than 1 year ago.

It has been one year since i have started.
And i believe i have achieved my original goal.

Today The FREE FSWizard gives far better results than many expensive solutions available on the market.

FSWizard:Standalone is the only available program that will warn you if cutter will be reaching its breaking point.

In fact we see paying users of other programs asking their developers for features that have been long implemented in FSWizard.
And we see those developers finally moving out of their comfort zone and trying to improve their program's functionality.

Where do we go from here?

What does the future hold for this project?

No one really knows.
Unlike others who can talk the speed/feed game, I am not into marketing.
I don't do a particularly good job of persuading people that my product is the best thing that happened to the CNC world.

All i have is 2 hours of free time on my hands after work and a ton or real-world machining experience not many in the software business can brag about.

All that remains to say here is

I am not using words "product" ,"consumers" and "business" just by accident.

Next release version of FSWizard:Standalone 0.015 PRO will be a commercial product.

It will be sold as a 1 year subscription.

I am not yet sure about the pricing.
But i know that i will make it subscription-based and the price will be very affordable.

This is the only way to move forward on this.

If you have any comments or thoughts, i would love to hear them out.