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:

Being as vast and as complex as it is HSMAdvisor Tool Database may seem overwhelming for many users despite all the benefits of using it.

To address this issue I have just added a new category to our HSMAdvisor on-line Help resource called Tool Database & Tool Inventory

Here is a the opening article of that category:

In all there are 5 articles in there already describing many of its functions in detail.
Please check them out if you are not sure what the Tool Database does and how to use it.

And as always: when in doubt - ASK :)

HSMAdvisor the Hook for MasterCAM x9 has had massive changes since the last update

• Completely redone Operation Import/Export functionality
• Added "Insert Operation" command (Add it to MasterCam toolbar through Customize->Toolbars->HSMADVISOR->select item,select toolbar-> Add..)
• Reworked MC Toolbar Icons
• Better tool Recognition
• Added support for ALL milling (2d, 3d, HST) operations. 
• Fixed a huge number of problems including those with coolant, tool numbers and some unsupported operations.

HSMAdvisor hook for MasterCAM currently supports only MC x9.

Due to large amount of work I have done on x9 hook I decided to not port it to support x8. I simply have no time resources to do so. I only have one life you know!

Later versions of MasterCAM will, however, be fully supported.

Every month we are getting a good amount of feedback and suggestions.

Everything is getting prioritized and eventually implemented. Urgent stuff is getting done fast. And other "nice to haves" are getting pushed down according to their usefulness / difficulty (yes, everyone secretly wishes my program could also edit and create HSM g-code :)).

It is amazing, but almost half of HSMAdvisor's features were originally suggested by our loyal users!

The latest update HSMAdvisor 1.213 addresses some of the feedback I have received last couple of months.

So the New features are:

1. Smart Depth and Width of Cut (DOC/WOC) suggestion (user suggested)
2. Compressing of Shared Tool DataBases
3. Display of Stock status on Tool DataBase tables (user suggested)
4. Various little improvements like new Heli-Coil reference, better DOC/WOC calculation better multitasking, etc. (mostly based on user feedback)

Let's go over the most important ones here:

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:

Sometimes I get asked whether hsmadvisor CNC Machinist Calculator is reliable enough out of the box.

I and many others test it at work every day. This 2"x1.5"x1.25" 4140 PH piece was programmed on masterscam with hsmadvisor speeds and feeds with all overrides set to default.

Worked out fast and awesome. As usual!

14497779489640.jpg

I regularly follow practicalmachinist.com forums.
Especially the cnc machining section of it.

I notice when CNC Speeds and Feeds questions come up people often suggest my HSMAdvisor Machinist calculator.
A referral by a satisfied customer is the best referral in my opinion. Thank you to everyone doing this great favor to me and my prospective users!

Other times users of HSMAdvisor question speeds and feeds it generates and instead of going to me, they ask on forums.
Which is always fine, because extremely often "wrong" results mean something wrong in users expectations or the data he feeds the calculator

In the process of discussion it usually turns out that the calculation results were correct, but because user decided to use a depth of cut or tool length, larger than he should have, HSMAdvisor compensates and gives a very conservative feed rate.

Just like in this forum post over here: Engraving with a 1/32 ball mill machinist wanted

Check it out here: http://www.engineering.com/CAM/ArticleID/10667/First-Look-Speed-and-Feed-Calculations-Go-Mobile-with-FSWizard.aspx

Can not say it gave me an immediate influx of new sales (although every bit helps!). I guess most of the sales are driven through this web site and the buzz around HSMAdvisor Advanced Speed and Feed Calculator or the free FSWizard:Online calculator.

I had some unfortunate troubles initially releasing the mastercam hook this month.

But thanks to the feedback from my users and the fine folk from eMasterCAM.com community they are now over!

Updated installer is available here-> http://hsmadvisor.com/index.php?page=HSMAdvisor_for_MasterCAM

Cheers!

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!