A few days ago one of FSwizard:PRo users questioned me over how FSwizard works.

The way SFM calculates seemed off to him.

As a result i made a quick sketch for him, that i thought i would share here.

Omar was asking me how come SFM seemed wrong for a 1" dia ball-nose cutter when making shallow depth cuts.

The sketch above shows exactly why.

On the left part we see a cutter engaged into the material to the depth equal to its corner radius.
At that depth the maximum effective diameter is achieved. So an old good RPM=4xSFM/Dia formula would apply.

But at shallower depths, effective diameter of the cutter is reduced.

At 0.1" depth of cut, effective diameter would only be around 0.6"

In fact it goes to zero at the very centre. So a higher RPM will be required to achieve the recommended cutting speed.

In the same thread i also explained how DOC/WOC balancing works.

So if you are interested - read on.

Here is the thread http://zero-divide.net/index.php?page=forums&shell_id=170&article_id=4590

Have just released another update to FSWizard for mobile devices.

Version 1.26 available now for Android and in a week for iOS adds Countersink/ Drillpoint Calculator.
It allwos to enter tool diameter, Tip angle, and a diameter of countersink reqiured.
It outputs Depth required to achive such diameter.

Also Thread size dropdown list was fixed.
It was showing wrong thread sizes when calculator was loaded with thread form other than UNC.

In other news i have spent a whole day trying to upload updated FSWizard to the iTunes appstore.

Every time i make an update for iOS i dread that very thing.
Every time i have to spend anywhere from several hour to several DAYS trying to upload an already finished app.
Sometimes i have to restart my computer, sometimes clean the project , sometimes i need to dance around singing voodoo songs....

Apple, YOU take 30% of my profit, I pay YOU 100$ a year just for the privelege of designing apps for your devices.
Can YOU please make the damn thing work THE first time i try it?

Drillpoint wizard

After almost 2 months since the last release the next update has just been uploaded to the google Play Store.

Version 1.32 follows in the footsteps of the HSMAdvisor.

It now too has latest material definitions and an updated custom material drop-down list.

This list now expands to the size of the screen overriding default Samsung's scroller (that they stole from iPhone).

Biggest update yet is a new Tap and Form Tap tool types.
You can now get not only cutting speed and feedrate for taps, but also calculate the best drill size for desired thread percentage.

New material list Tap Tap hole parameters

Check it out!

FSWizard is now available not only online and on Android, but on ITunes as well.

For now only the free LITE version will be available.
I wanted to make sure everything is solid enough to roll out the PRO version.

FSWizard PRO, if everything goes smoothly, should be coming in a week or so.

https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=741521897&mt=8

By the way iOs and Android versions are being developed parallel to each-other, so they will be sharing identical functionality.

Iphone view

I have just published a latest update to our FSWizard for android platform.

Starting from version 1.1 calculations will be persistent. Which means that app will remeber all input fields when its shut down and re-instate them on launch.

Program functions are now accessed through a drop down menu located in the header.

Also tool data is now resetting to default when tool type is changed.

There is a new addition too.

We now have triangle calc

material section drop down menu triangle calc

HSMAdvisor 0.018 is avilable for download.

First of all we have a new feature.
It is Machine Profiles now users can maintain their own machine types.

Inside machine profiles users can specify machine power curve that allows to warn user if power required to make the cut is outside machine power curve.

Because of added new features version 0.018 now requires .NET 4.0 or later

Also several bugs have been fixed:

• Serial Key bug that caused some keys to malfunction and not recornise by the program.
• Comma/Dot decimal point in some locales have been fixed

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.

After quite a few requests i have finally created support forums to address suggestions/bugs and problems regarding FSWizard

Please submit all your requests in the appropriate sub forum over here http://zero-divide.net/index.php?page=forums

Fow Windows XP and later.

It has just been released.

Please test it out and tell me what you think!!!!!

Download it HERE http://zero-divide.net/index.php?page=FSWizard_SA