HSM or High Speed Machining is becoming more and more popular each day.
Many of us have seen those youtube videos where endmlls remove large amounts of material at high speeds/feeds.

While definitions of HSM may vary between tool manufacturers and even individual shops, the physics behind it remain the same.

In this article i would like to explore flat endmills.

HSM is not about ramping up your speed/feed overrides to 200% and puling out your smartphone to record another youtube-worth video.

What is HSM?

HSM is a complex of programming, machining and tooling techniques aimed at radical increase of productivity.

Programming

The cornerstone of HSM is low radial and high axial engagement of an endmill with the workpiece.

There are many CAD/CAM systems that allow you to create HSM tool-paths. Mastercam's Dynamic milling and SurfCAM's Truemill are some of them.

When radial cutter engagement with the material is smaller than the radius of the tool an interesting thing happens.
Chip load- the distance the tool advances per cutter revolution per tooth- does not equal the actual chip thickness anymore.
Chip thinning mainly happens at radial engagements below 30% of the diameter.

In order to get compensated chipload you need to multiply recommended by manufacturer chipload by the chip thinning factor.

Usual Radial Engagement for HSM toolpaths however is between 5 and 15%.

Axial depth of cut varies depending on geometry, but

Radial Chip Thinning HSMAdvisor Screenshot

Sevaral weeks ago i saw a post on CNCZone.

A HSMadvisor user Peter Neil used it to calculate cutting conditions for cutting a block of pre-hardened stainless steel.
His machine was Tormach.

Here is an exact copy-paste from that forum post:
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Did a test cut on the Tormach today using feeds & speeds from the latest version of the excellent HSM advisor.
To make it interesting, I did the cut using some 1.2085 pre-hard Stainless Steel as I have plenty of stock of it and have a job in mind for this, and wanted to see how it cut on the Tormach.
The material is like a stainless P20, at 16% Chrome/1% Nickel & 0.5% Sulphur (which makes it slightly free-er machining) and is hardened to around 33-35 Rockwell C, so I used the HSM advisor guidelines for machining P20 rather than Stainless. Cutter was a 10mm 4-flute Carbide TiAlN coated EM.

So...... ticking the HSM/Chip thinning option I got a speed of 5120 and feed of 2214mm/minute( 87 IPM). I used a DOC of 10mm and WOC of 0.5mm/0.020" - and turned off the flood cooling to machine it completely dry. The finish pass on the 1st level was 15mm DOC and 0.5mm WOC and slightly lower speeds/feeds.

Loaded up a 40mm x 63mm block , pressed the start button, and it went from this....





...to this!

This release is a major step forward.
We are starting to wander away from just Speeds and Feeds calculator part of the project.

Version 0.022 was a little buggy.

All reported and known bugs have been fixed.

New update version is 0.023

New features:

• Threads page: You can now get thread cutting and tapping data for most popular threads in north America (UNC/UNF/ISO).
  The list of supported threads and features will grow according to necessity and user feedback.
• Machine Profiles now have 2 new buttons: Clone and Import.
  Clone button simply copies selected machine definition with a different name.
  Import button is needed to be able to update/add machine definitions from default machine list. As users modify and customize their Machine List, thay are now able to add machine definitions hassle-free from default_machines.xml file that is supplied with every update.

Bugs Fixed:

• Sticky Ball nose check box

• Max HP improperly rounded

Additions:

• Thanks to Greg Jackson and Matt Doeppers from Tormach i was able to create Horse Power/RPM curves for Tormach PCNC770 and PCNC1100 models (if you install over previous version, you can use import function to add those machines to the list)

Threading Machine Definition Import

An attachment like this is sure to save you some time and money running your lathe unattended

And here is a sketch that i used to make it

drawing Side view Front view

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.

Here are some samples of nested parts i did recently

In both cases back of all pieces were machined at the same time, dowel holes milled so that there would be a way to align top and bottom.

Ealot of material was lost, but it was a scrap anyways, so all i gained was alot of saved man-hours.

And here are 4 more pictures:

The ONLY FREE CNC Speeds and Feeds Calcualtor

Confidently calculate cutting conditions for hundreds of work-piece materials and of combinations of tooling types and coatings.

• Accurately Estimate cutting forces involved in machining process and prevent tool breakage.
• Estimate machine power requirement and help choose best tool for the job.
• Suggest safe and practical Axial and Radial engagement values.
• Compensate for reduced-shank, long and extra-long tools.
• Improve cycle times and tool life
• UNIQUE feature that allows to set comfortable levels of cutter torque and deflection and prevent cutter breakage.
• Ideal for use as your Dynamic / Thoroidal / Truemill calculator

Please visit the project page for download link, support and instructions.
http://zero-divide.net/index.php?page=FSWizard_SA

Tired of printing out Operation lists and then wasting time adding setup information by hand?

There is a neat and easy way to replace standard Operations and Tooling lists with something very compact and usable.

Here are config files i use at my work to create Setup Sheets and tooling lists right from SurfCam.

1. First make sure you backup you Operations.cfg and Tooling.cfg files in case you want to go back (VERY NOT likely)
   Those can be found inside your V5 or V6\Config directory.
2. Unpack contents of the attached ZIP folder.
3. Copy .CFG files found within into your V5 or V6\Config folder.
4. Copy folder "images" into "C:\Surfcam" directory, if you want also tool images to show with tooling list.
5. Go to SurfCam Options and in section Setup Sheet select "Current" from several other choises.

Thats it!!

UPDATE!!!!!!

• Operations list NOW highlights table rows when you move the mouse over them.
• When you select ANY text on Operations List, the same text will be highlighted over the whole page!!!

Download current file below

Samples are below:

Surfcam_custom_operations_cfg.zip Size:0.11 MB

FSWizard Online is:

FSWizard is here

It is the most accurate Online Feeds and Speeds Calulator.

In order for every user to enjoy latest modifications and most accurate results, it is WEB Based.
This means that you can use it across all imaginable operational systems and devices.
All you need is an internet connected WEB browser.
No download or installation is required: Just visit the web page.

Also a full functioning mobile version is available.

Key Features of FSWizard:

Out Company used to have somebody else plasmacut cutting anvils for us.
This was expensive, plus heat generated by plasma caused already unstable anvils to warp like crazy making them very hard to grind flat.

So when foreman told me to machine one on CNC i immidately asked him to buy one of those nifty Hanita TiALN coated Varimill cutters.
Too bad they are too expensive. So the company bought same style of cutters made by Niagara. 0.5" end mill there is x3 cheaper than hanita's. Plus i believe cutting tools made to the same specs, out of the same materials are performing identical.

The machine we ve been using for this is really shaky and busted, so dont laugh at speeds and feeds that we came up with.

So basically, Specs Are:

• Material: Hardox pre-hardened steel Rc 45-50
• Cutter: 4 Flute, Stagger Flute TiALN coted 0.5" Micrograin Carbide End Mill, 2.5" Overall, 0.625" Flute Length, 1" overhang
• Operation: Slotting
• Speed: 1200 RPM
• Feed: 4.8 IPM
• Depth OF Cut: 0.125"
• Plunge method: 2.5 Deg Ramp/Helix, Or Plunge into 0.281Dia pilot hole at 3 IPM
• Coolant: Airblast + Oil