Being a CNC Machinist/Programmer is sometimes more than simply creating a program and machining the actual part, often times it is about creating efficient and accurate fixturing.

In this little project:

I had to machine rectangular cut-outs and drill holes through an already-turned steel ring. Then I had to part each ring to 4 equal pieces.

There were about 100 such rings that worked out to 400 pieces in total.

After drilling holes on an indexer I had to machine a fixture to hold my part through 2 remaining set-ups.

First half of the fixture consists of the expanding mandrel:

The work-piece would be mounted on it like so. A hole on the side is used to properly position it:

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I personally use HSMAdvisor at work every day and trust its results 100%

I have to say my program now knows about machining more than i do. I certainly can not remember cutting speeds and feeds, reduction factors, depth of cut and a ton of other information for every material I have ever cut.

Now add to that the various possible combinations of tool/material/coating and it becomes a no brainier, that a good speed and feed calculator like HSMAdvisor saves a ton of time and money by improving your tool life and productivity.

It is not only good for HSM (High Speed Machining) but also for general machining, drilling tapping, you name it.

The algorithms it employs are far superior to what other calculators are using. Take for example the real-time depth of cut/deflection optimization, that other calculators do in a separate window and take a few seconds to complete.

Here is a quick video lesson where i show the steps involved in creating a simple contouring toolpath in MasterCam x9:

And here is the video of machining the actual part:

T15 M6(T15 1/2" HSS Drill)

G54 G0 G90 X[Hole1_X] Y[Hole1_Y] S1500 M03

G0 G43 H15 M08

G81 G98 X[Hole1_X] Y[Hole1_Y] Z[Depth] F15.0

X[Hole2_X] Y[Hole2_Y]

X[Hole3_X] Y[Hole3_Y]

G80

G0  Z0.5 M09

G0 G91 G28 Z0 M05

Canned cycles are used every time we need to drill, ream or tap holes on our CNC machine

Standard Fanuc G-Code language supports more than a dozen canned cycles.

The most common cycles that will cover 99.9% of your g-Code CNC programming work are:

Subsequent holes

You can drill additional holes After your canned cycle has been initiated.
Any line with X Y position will be treated as another hole position.

Each position can have its own Retract value, feed rate and retract height modifier.

G80 - Canned Cycle Cancel Code

After all the holes of the canned cycle have been drilled, it is required to call G80 code in order to cancel the current cycle.

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The First Ever HSMAdvisor Speed and Feed Wizard hook for MasterCAM has been released today for everybody to download for free.

Getting it to this stage has been a titanic effort for me and I am going to put a lot more of it in the coming months: i need to get it to pretty much perfect state before i start forgetting how i did all those things.

Because of this each update i release will extend trial period by 30 days.

This will last for as long as needed to finish the bulk of developing it.

At this moment the following toolpaths are fully recognized:

• Face Mill
• Contour
• Pocket
• Drilling
• Circle Mill
• All 2D HST Toolpaths:
  Dynamic Milling
  Dynamic Area
  Blend Mill
  Peel Mill

The only exception is: Coolant parameters are getting lost somewhere in the process. So please double check it before posting!

Things to be added in the coming days/weeks/months:

1. Fix Coolant
2. Engraving
3. Other Circular Toolpaths such as ThreadMilling etc.
4. Conventional and HST 3D Toolpahs
5. Turning

If you have any suggestions or find any bugs please let me know.

I would like to reassure my current customers that HSMAdvisor Hook is/will be included with your license once this all is set and done.

Please help me with your suggestions/bug reports make this thing even better for all of you!

Here are the latest 2 videos i uploaded to my Youtube chanel

Setting up HSMAdvisor hook:

Calculating cutting parameters for Face Milling, Saving Tool and Cut data and recalling it when needed:

Cheers. And a huge "thank you" to everyone who has been supporting me!

I have not announced the previous update here, so i am going to cover the latest changes here.

New and Improved Things:

• Fine-tuned Speeds for drilling tools
• Added more database self-repair capability
• Added "Uddeholm" vendor' material family

An update to port those changes to Android and IOS apps is under way

Would like to thank everyone for their continuous support and feedback.

I do not know what i would do without you guys!

Thanks!

We have finally reached version 1.00!

Here is a list of new and improved features:

What's New

• Material Drop-Down list now shows 'X' on the row when the current Library Tool has Custom Surface Speed and Chipload settings.
• Load Tool dialog box now has Tool Type Icon. The same column shows a readable Operation Type Icon for finishing, roughing, etc.
• Drilling Tool Types now allow user to enter a custom Pecking value
• Milling Tool Types now have Editable Plunge RPM and Plunge Feedrate
• Milling Tool Types' updated Circle/Ramp Dialog now allows to specify whether ramp settings apply to Plunge feedrate of Milling feedrate

What's Improved

• Custom Speeds and Feeds tab on Edit Tool Dialog was improved with new buttons to reset custom Surface Speed and Chipload settings
  Glitch with certain diameters in metric mode being missed is fixed
• Load Tool/Cut Dialog box' Search was improved
• Load Tool/Cut Dialog box now features much improved tool and cut list with better readability and usability
• Ballnose Tools have been improved to better show changing effective diameter for different depths of cut.

Now, because a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some screenshots as well.

Updated and Improved Load Tool/Cut Dialog:

Note new Tool Type and Cut type Icons in the third column.Read More 

Whats new:

• New "Reference" Tab now hosts all old Tap and Drill charts along with 2 new interactive Fastener Head Clearance tables (For SHCS and 82Deg FHS).
• New additions to Aluminum, Copper, Stainless and Steel material groups.

Fixed:

• Manufacturer Chipload loosing default value in metric mode condition fixed.
• Improved Plugin Download workings in "Plugins" page. Now external links do not get broken. Also it works a lot faster too.

So, Let's see what new goodies we got here.

As you see i re-arranged some stuff around.
All data tables are now in "Reference" tab. and all geometric calculators are not in "Geometry" tabRead More 

New Things:

• New "Indexable Drill" Tool Type
• Some tool will now have Usage Tips in the warning box, IE new Indexable Drill Tool type will have recommendations to use through coolant.
• New Buttons on Tool Geometry pane:
  [Edit As New] button allows to quickly drop current tool and use its data to create a new one
  [Add Tool] Allows to quickly add tool to the library of your choise
• Edit/Add Tool dialog now allows you to choose tool library when you add or edit tool information data into the database

Whats fixed:

• On systems where comma (,) is used to in place of a decimal point, selecting Tap tool type would throw an error.
  This glitch has been fixed in this update.