Before we start milling away our stock we first need to get down to the required depth.

This is not a problem with external features when we can plunge outside.

When machining closed pockets, however, we need to find a way to get down to the machining depth first.

As usual there are several ways to get the job done. The plunging methods listed here are not ordered by their preference.

For various machining operations on different materials some may be more preferable than others.

Straight Plunging into a larger Pre-Drilled hole

This is one the best ones in my opinion.
Very few machining modes can compete in effectiveness with drilling and this method will get you the best combined tool life on most materials and (in case of many deep pockets) the least machining time, even when tool change time is factored in.

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Out of all kinds of feedback forms on HSMAdvisor (we have Forums, User Feedback and Unistall Feedback) web site the only one I dread opening is the "Uninstall Feedback".

When someone uninstalls HSMAdvisor, on the last step the program asks to provide the final feedback to maybe help us make HSMAdvisor better.

I do not like reading this form very much because it means that would-be users left in some way dissatisfied with the program.

And that really breaks my heart!

Among the most common answers is stuff like "does not support metric" even though IT VERY MUCH SUPPORTS METRIC.
We have, without a doubt, one of the most flexible units system of all machining-related software products.
I guess I have to improve in helping people learn how to use many unit switches within the program.

But the one that stood out is this one:

Thank you Jeremy! Really made my day!

Just a heads-up.

Another update is coming this weekend.
I am adding some materials and this threads specification drawing:

Requested by one of the users, I am sure it will be a big help.

HSM with MasterCam Dynamic Milling has long been one of my favorite toolpath strategies when machining hardened and tough to machine steels.

The job at hand was to machine out a 5" disk out of pre-hardened 4340 steel. About 43RC hard.
Due to an island in the middle (leaving only 3/4" room for the tool) I could not use a bigger indexed cutter, so i decided to use the adaptive clearing toolpath.

I started out by calculating Speeds and Feeds with HSMAdvisor and come up with the following starting parameters:

Full depth, at 10% engagement.

Which worked just fine. But the tool was not new and I decided to sacrifice it in the name of science and maxed it up to see how long the tool was going to handle it.

So I adjusted the cutting speed to 170% and feed to 150% (which accounts to heavy roughing):

To be honest I was not sure the tool was going to last very long, but it exceeded all my expectations!
It lasted for about 2 hours and completed the whole run of more than 20 pieces.

I even took a video cutting one of the parts:

Note how there are no sparks coming out. This is because the chip is thick enough to not overheat. This works both ways. Chips stay cool and due to their larger mass carry most of the heat away from the cutting edge.

After the end of the run (and it was not new to begin with) the tool looked like it could do as much!

As you may have noticed there have been changes in the look of his very web site.

Here is what has been changed and improved:

• I got tired of it's old appearance, improved layout and changed styles.
• Improved and updated social buttons throughout the website.
• Redesigned Reference page and added GD&T Interactive Reference

GD&T Reference has been available in our FSWizard Mobile app and HSMAdvisor Speed and Feed Calculator for some time now and adding it to this website was a next logical step.

There is more changes coming. But i will not tell you what those are because competition is watching :)

By the way...

When you find useful information on this website, please help others too and share it with your peers using the new social buttons!

This mainstream "social" thing has been overlooked by me in the past and not many people are aware of our great software and resources for machinists.

Spread the word and help this project do even better!

Just saw this very impressive machining video on Practical Machinist forums.

A very nice example of using machine and the tools to their full potential.

As unhappy I am to learn that something may be wrong with the software I develop and love, negative feedback is essential in learning whether i am doing everything right.

So a couple of days ago I received an email from a somewhat disappointed user. 

He (lets call him Peter) was complaining that HSMAdvisor calculator gave him "excessively high" speeds and feeds for his 3/4" 4 flute 3.0 LOC  end mill in aluminum.

With the data Peter entered he was getting around 10000 RPM(SFPM 2117) and the feed of 270 inches per minute while usual practice in the shop was side-milling aluminum at that (2.8" axial) depth at only 325 SFM

After double-checking the numbers I replied that in fact his numbers seemed very slow and if for some reason he HAD to run that slow (heck, i machine most steels faster than 325 SFM) due to some conditions, perhaps, he was ought to change the conditions themselves.

This is what I am getting for Peter's end mill setup:

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