As you may have noticed zero-divide.net website where I post all the updates, research and news have gotten a bunch on new social sharing buttons.

I would like to encourage all our friends to share our web pages with the big wide net!

As I am beginning to realize the potential behind the whole "social networking" thing, I also understand that this is something I should have done from the get-go.

Help this project flourish by recommending our great software and information to your peers on the Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn!

We all know what the CNC Milling Machine spindle is used for - to hold the tool. But it is old and boring. Everybody does that.

Here are the 6 interesting and maybe less common ways to utilize machine spindle, increase productivity and solve some problems you never thought you had.

Use your Spindle as a fan to blow chips and coolant off of your work-piece, table and fixturing.

I saw this little gadget at a local IMTS show and it was quite cool. It is installed into a tool holder like a regular cutting tool would be and at the end of the program you can call the it up and run a little table-cleaning program to make your work a lot cleaner!

Use a spring-loaded Sharpe to mark invisible features.

I came up with this method when guys in the shop asked me for a way locate vent holes on our moulds.

It consists of a two spring-loaded aluminium cylinders, one end of which goes into a tool holder and another one holds a Sharpe marker.

A program used to drill the back holes is rotated and hole locations projected to the surface of the mould. This way our tool does not try to go through the wall.

I tried to dig up a video of it, but it seems I lost it.

Give out a noise alarm

On one of my jobs I attached a simple whistle to a toolholder and programmed spindle air-blow M-code when the program was complete.

That's a noise you can not miss!

Do some side-milling with a right angle attachment

This spindle attachment adds one more faux axis to your 3 axis mill allowing you to do some work in a hard to reach place.

Increase RPM with a Spindle Speeder

Tiny endmills require crazy speeds to get optimal productivity and tool life.
Spindle speeders can solve the problem of near-zero cutting speeds for micro-machining.

As far as I know there are 3 kinds of spindle speeders:

• Meachanical, where rotation of the spindle is multiplied using gears.
• Air-driven, where air is used to rotate a little turbine, that in turn rotates the tool.
• Coolant-driven (like on the picture above). Same as air-driven, but the pressure of the Coolant-Through-Spindle is used to rotate the turbine.

Coolant and air-driven speeders offer highest speeds, while mechanical ones give the most torque and more constant RPM values.

Use your CNC with a Spindle Probe as a CMM to measure features right on the machine

Sometimes i had to measure huge parts with pretty tight tolerance requirements and taking them out of the machine was not an option. Instead i elected to write a little macro, that would tell the machine to probe the features i needed and write numbers into unused work offsets.

All that remained after that was to check if the numbers stored in offsets lay within the tolerances.

What else can you use your spindle for?

There have been purely electric cars long before the Tesla Model 3.

But Tesla has made it cool. Sort of like how Apple made the iPhone cool, Tesla made not just gas-free, environment-saving cars. It made cool high-performance vehicles that are fun to drive.

And nobody really cares that Chevy Volt has already been available for years for a comparable price. Couple of days since its unveil, the new Model 3 has already outsold the Volt. Not a small feat, considering, they are only going to start delivering in about a year!

But Tesla, like Apple, like Amazon is in many ways a disruptive technology.

This technology will eventually leave some people without jobs.

And I am not only talking about  all those dealerships, car mechanics and alike - all those people who are directly being affected right now because the business model of Tesla does not permit independently-owned dealerships, nor third-party mechanics. Just like Apple that will not allow any other apps to run on their iPhones, other than the ones bought in their iTunes store.

I am also talking about the huge industry of gas or diesel engine and transmission producers.

See. I work for a company, that specializes in just a small (but important, like everything else) business of power transmission within the engine. All those timing sprockets, pulleys, automatic AC clutches, vibration-silencers and a bunch of other stuff that rotates. It is a 2 billion business for the company.

I work in a prototyping department. And I can see the writing on the wall.
Once car manufacturers realize that the future has come, they will stop investing money into developing the old engine technologies.

For the time being, while transitioning to all-electric cars, they will still produce the engines, but nobody will spend a dime on all those obround-shaped sprockets (for example) company I work for specializes in.

And then eventually they will not need even that any more!

Would I buy a Tesla, thus by a tiny bit nearing the end of my job in engine manufacturing?

Yes, I would.

Once a new technology sweeps in. All those who were reliant on the previous one will have to adapt or die off.

Just people who used to operate elevators- new technology will force lots of people to go their way.

Can't stop the evolution.
But it really helps to see where its heading, so we don't get ran over by it!

Me? I don't see my current position within the current company existing any more in about 5 to 10 years.

Cheers!

I would like to announce the launch of a brand new product called HSMCode.

HSMCode combines the power HSMAdvisor speed and Feed calculator, its advanced Tool and Cut Database and the new functionality of HSMCode into one seamless product!

What does HSMCode Do?

HSMCode allows you to create ToolPaths from imported CAD or Solid geometry with ease.

All you need to do is pick features that need to be machined and HSMAdvisor will pick the most suitable tool, calculate proper speeds and feeds and then HSMCode will generate the G-Code for your machine

As simple as that.

You can also create additional geometry using an in-built CAD designer and Simulate your Toolpaths to verify the correctness of your work.

The sales will begin in a couple of months on June 31 2016!

Please contact me if you would like to test the early demo version, affect the development of the software and (depending on the value of your input) receive your Lifetime Subscription for free!

Cheers!

Don't you hate when "that guy" cuts your stock a little too short?

Holding on to just 0.060" here. The part is 1.5" tall made out of 4140, which helps it stay in place and not collapse under machining pressure. Pretty sure it would have moved if it was made out of mild steel.

PS. Did I eay I love those CR vise? I do. Can't lift that jaw with a lift truck.

The number of this site's registered members is approaching 5000 and I am more and more often receiving requests to reset someone's password because they forgot it.

See, up until now there was no way for a user to reset his pass on his own. So I had to do it.

Being as lazy as I am (when it comes to petty chores) I have revamped our registration module.

You can now Register, Login, Forget your Password and Reset it in one convenient place.

Just go to Sign In menu option.

Oh, if you want to reset your pass you need to provide the email address, you used to register. And it needs to be valid, because it is where your new pass will be sent to!

Cheers!

Login

Let us kick off the first HSMAdvisor sale of 2016!

Until April 1st save 15% on all HSMAdvisor purchases over $90

You can buy a 3 year subscription for $82
A Lifetime Subscription for just $165

Offer is combinable with our standard 30% multiple seat discount!

So, you can save even when buying the 2 seats of one year subscription.

Check our web store for updated pricing: http://hsmadvisor.com/index.php?page=buy

Happy Easter and have a Good Long Weeken

It does not annoy me anymore!

Originally this part was programmed for and machined in 6061 aluminum, but when production run came, material was changed to HRS and then to SPS (4140).

Luckily reprogramming using HSMAdvisor hook for MasterCAM is a bliss.

Mere 5 minutes and all speeds, feeds, depths of cut, etc. were changed to safe and productive values.

New Material

Being a professional CNC Machinist myself with a good manual background I often find myself watching various machining videos and blogs.

Unlike others I do not often share somebody-else's work, I could just not walk past this one and not tell everybody how great I think this is....

This story was posted on "Russian reddit" and here is the direct translation of the author's post:

Lets begin with tyres. Vladimir (guy's name) decided to create the mould to make the rubber tyres himself. Here it is:

Here are the tyres he made with it. Beautiful aren't they?

He also made little differentials. Housings, gears. Everything made himself:

Frontal axel's wheels can steer:

And here is the half-finished truck itself:

I subscribed to the author to see if anything else comes out of it.

You can find more pictures on this story over here. Just keep in mind that the beard is not moderated and some stuff there can be NSFW.

I would like to thank each and every person who has helped us out on our many projects this year.

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thus I am kicking off the last sale of this year. It will run until January the 4th.

You can save 15% on all purchases over $90!

Cheers.

See you next year!

PS. I have just uploaded an update to address the latest feedback. Thank You and Enjoy.