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.

HSMAdvisor_v0.200 program picture.JPG

New things: None.

Well not really.

First of all alot of small bugs has been fixed.

Second of all i added a neat picture to Drilling operation.

It now shows what each drill specific field means

Also. Unfortunately all current license key holder will have to get new license keys.

If you currently have a license key, please e-mail me your new Computer-ID
And i will send you a new license key.

NOTE:

If you are installing over previous version of HSMAdvisor, you are encouraged to perform complete uninstall of the old version.

Othervise what happens is old settings file is not compatible with the new one.

This will cause Default Tool Type, Tool material and Coating presets to get lost and you end up with a funny looking FSWizard page.

Correcting this is extremely easy:

You need to select some tool type (IE: End Mill), select some Tool Material (IE. HSS) and finally select some Coating (IE. NONE)

This will fix the problem.

Attached below is a screenshot of what it looks like when settings mismatch happens, not a pretty sight i agree, but there is no need to panic.

(Note to self: add version check for every file)

Drilling Settings version mismatch

Needed to do alot of side drilling/milling/tapping on our moulds lately.

So I quickly designed and whipped up this custom indexing fixture that allows me to mount almost anything to it.

Face plate has several tooling dowel holes on front side to locate work piece.
On the back of face plate there are 36 3/8 dia reamed holes spaced 10 Degree apart.

Housing has a big 5.0"Dia pocket in the front into which the face plate's hub fits in with 0.001" clearance
Housing also has corresponding 3/8dia reamed holes spaced apart 9 degrees. This allows me to index the face plate with 1 degree increment.

Design time:2 hours, Machining time: 2 hours.

Pictures are here:

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Optimizing Peck Drilling for Deep Holes

Peck drilling is often necessary when machining deep holes. However, with the correct feed and speed settings, pecking is unnecessary for depths up to:

• 3× diameter for standard drills
• 5× diameter for high-performance parabolic drills

For deeper holes:

• Up to 10× diameter → Up to 5 pecks for regular drills, and up to 3 pecks for parabolic drills
• Beyond 10× diameter → Constant pecking is required:
  • 0.5–1× diameter per peck for regular drills
  • 1.5–2× diameter per peck for parabolic drills

Since programming requires specifying a peck amount, here are the recommended values:

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Here are some Okuma Captain 1200 program samples for work with live tooling.
Samples are quite big so READ full article

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As part of FS Wizard's development. 2 drills were tested today on T6061 Aluminum.

0.312 Dia and 0.390 Dia Dormer A002 Drill Jobber Drill with TiN coated tip.

Helix:30Deg

Point:Split, 118Deg.

Hole depth for both was 3.0"".

Peck equaled 1xDia

Speeds and Feeds for 0.312 Dia drill were

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Tool:0.281 dia 0 helix TIN coated carbide drill

A need arouse to drill and tap lots of blind 1/4-20 holes in 3/4" thick hardox 45-50RC hard plate.

So if you ever need to do this use:

1) DRILL
Tap hole: >0.202" or bigger.  5/8 deep.
Drill used: Tialn coated carbide drill.
S=1418 RPM
F=2.6 IPM
NO Peck, No Coolant

2)TAP
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Lately we've been doing alot of anvils out of 3/8 or 1/2" Hardox steel (Rc 45-50)
Aside from having to machine profiles and pockets we also have to drill some mounting holes.

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Here is a list of Okuma G and M codes i got from the manual

Note Some codes may not be supported by your machine, all information is given as is and i dont give a ... if you break something.

Information given here is correct to the best of my knowlege

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