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....
This HSMAdvisor v0.200 release is a major step forward.
Aside from major rewrites that i did to improve stability of the code there are also new features that will improve user experience and move us one step ahead towards making it the best tool for machinists.
New Features
Circular Interpolation feedrate compensation Now you can get compensated feedrates for milling inside and outside round features.
HSM and Chip Thinning are now two separate check boxes. Chip thinning allows to compensate for thinning chip thickness at low radial and axial engagements. HSM allows to increase cutting speed when chip thinning occurs.
Manufacturer's Speed and Chipload input For when you need to enter manufacturer recommended S&F values.
.NET 2.0 Framework Starting from this release i have downgraded required framework version from 4.0 to 2.0 This will allow us to target wider audience as it immediately drops requirements for Windows computers.
UNEF and UNS threads New thread sizes were added into the Threading section.
Drill Chart was expanded to drills up to 1.5" in diameter
Bugs Fixed
All the existing bugs were tackled when code re-write happened. I took a long time testing and fixing all of the problem and suspect areas, so at this poing it should be bug-free.
April 14, 2013, 10:34 pm by Eldar Gerfanov (Admin)
HSMAdvisor v0.1 is now available.
(newest version is 0.101)
A decision has been made that updates containing new features will increment by 0.1 each time
Bug fix updates and improvement updates will increment by 0.01
This should be a hint that first fully commercial release is in sight. (you still have another 6 months or so of free updates).
There is only one major feature
Machinery with gear boxes is now supported- users can enter a list of RPM machine can have set and FSWizard will force all calculations to stick to those pre-defined numbers. There is a sample machine called "Manual Lathe" that demonstrates this feature. You can use "Import" function in Machine Definitions dialog to load that machine and see how it works
Several bugs have been fixed
Manually entered RPM for lathe tools have been fixed
Minimum RPM entered in Machine Definitions dialog now actually forces FSWizard to not go below that value and generate a warning.
How Sticky RPM works:
Create new machine in Machine Definitions by clicking Add button and giving it a name you would recoginze.
Fill up all of the input boxes including Min and Max RPM, Horse Power and Torque.
Enter list of RPM values your machine supports into the Power Curve table. (Note RPM values HAVE to be in incremental order)
Against each RPM row enter the max Horesepower your machine has (because its a gear-box, machine HP value is constant at any spindle speed) Tip: if Max torque was unknown, now you can enter the highest value you see in Torque row.
Check Calculations Stick to pre-defined RPM only check box (Yes i know the picture shows that box unchecked, but you have to CHECK it)
Check Use Horse Power Curve Compensation check box
Thats it!
Now FSWizard will force calculated RPM to match the closest RPM value from the table.
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 andMatt 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)
First of all HSMAdvusor is being particially rebuilt to fix one current issue and provide easier frature implementation in the future. I will try to push update this weekend.
FSWizard:Online has not seen alot of updates in quite some time. A decision has been made to persue mobile web application with bacend running on the server. Currently i am exploring options, modifying mobile version to work with google's jQuery mobile framework to allow seamless deployment across al platforms.
Below is a screenshot of the mobile web app being developed right now.
February 25, 2013, 1:20 am by Eldar Gerfanov (Admin)
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
February 14, 2013, 9:44 pm by Eldar Gerfanov (Admin)
Sometimes people ask me: "I tried your calculator, and i liked it, but it seems to me a little too aggressive...do you actually do any testing?"
Well, to those I say that not only i do testing, but i run production jobs 100% calculated with my own HSMAdvisor.
Many machinists say that nothing beats an experienced operator holding his hand on feed hold button and playing with speed and feed override trying to find the "sweet spot" where cutting speed and feed rate are maximized and chatter is eliminated or reduced.
And it is correct, but not any machinist is experienced or actually knows what he is doing. Many machinists also finish their apprenticeship program and never learn a single thing about new tooling types and materials since. They bag years of experience, but their knowledge is stuck on a level it was when they first got their license.
Also not a single person can possibly know cutting conditions for hundreds of materials and remember all of the jobs he had ever ran.
This is where tool database comes in.
Not only can you save tools to cut down and in many cases eliminate entering parameters for every calculation. But you can (and should) save cutting data for each particular case.
A single tool entry can contain an unlimited number of cuts attached to it, so machinist never has to remember everything.
Here is a i made video of slotting D2 with variable helix hi-performace endmill.
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