I have just uploaded a new release of HSMAdvisor.

I have decided to extend trials every time major releases come out.

This will happen every several months or so.

This release is pretty big. So every one who has not purchased yet gets 30 days more to play with it.

We have material cross-reference tool.

It allows you to quickly figure out material group for a large number of materials. Around 1000 of them.
You can access it by pressing "MORE" button next to material drop-down list.

Here is it looks:

Second Big thing is new tool life estimator.

It allows to show you how tool life reacts to changes in speed, feed rate and depth of cut.

It is a percentage based on normal shoulder milling cut that should equal 100%

Nobody else has this feature- it is absolutely unique to HSMAdvisor and that is in part why i decided to extend trials this time.

Besides tool life gage there is a new tab in results area.

It is called Gages.

It shows important information like what percentage of deflection, torque and machine load we are running at the moment.

It helps to figure out at a glance if something is out of whack.

As always feedback is welcome.

If you are working in mold-making, prototyping or even in a job shop you have had to use unusual form tooling before in your life.

Form tooling is often used to machine undercuts and other features on regular 3 axis machines that would otherwise require a multi axis machining centre or are not machinable o at all.

The classical example of a form tool is a tear-drop ball mil, also known as a "lollipop". It has a tip with a certain diameter and a much smaller shank that produces enough clearance to machine undercuts on straight walls. It can also be used to regular surface finishing and 2d milling.

Another example is a T-slot cutter that is used to produce key-ways and t- slots

The main thing to consider when machining with reduced shank end mils is deflection and torque.

While deflection is especially dangerous for long tools, torque becomes much more important for tools with severely reduced shank.

Torque required to break a tool is directly proportional to the diameter of its shank.

And when shank diameter is much smaller than the tip diameter it does not matter how short that weak portion is: unless you compensate for it you will snap the tool.

The first thing that crosses the mind in many such cases is "I gotta run this tool very slow". It may take forever, but in many cases job gets somewhat done.

Contrary to that many experienced machinists have been proponents of different approach. Instead of reducing feed rate to the point of rubbing and below, it is much more productive to reduce cutter engagement if possible and leave feed rate settings largely unchanged.

Trying to keep proper chip load is even more important when machining work-hardenable materials like stainless steel and titanium. In those cases rubbing is not just unproductive, it leads to a very premature, in many cases instantaneous tool failure.

Just how much of a cut is possible to take in each particular case is the black magic that separates beginners from seasoned pros.

Not to worry though

Here is an example Read More 

.....and this is why they are so heavy.

I have stumbled upon this video the other day.

It shows a very good reason to keep those doors closed at all times when runing your machine.

Shrink fit holders and extensions often come with a big through hole.

Its primary use is to allow the shank be knoked out from he back should the tool ever snap off. It is also used to supply coolant for CTS machines.

Unfortunately said hole affects rigidity of the holder making it more likely to chatter leaving bad surface finish and badly affecting tool life.

There is however an old trick to prevent or minimize the chatter.

All you have to do is pack that hole with some thick grease.

Don't forget to cap off the oppening so that grease does not escape when the tool is spinning.

Here are several photos of surface finish before and after grease application. All cutting parameters were exactly the same in both cases.

before. deep chatter marks after. surface finish is ideal tool in extension holder showing capped hole

This release features some pretty major updates and features.

First of all, Tool deflection model has been radically improved over previous versions.
Now model fully considers not only the flute length, but also depth of cut and how it affects deflection!

No other speed and feed calculator alows you to do that.

Calculator now helps getting full advantage of those Hight Axial engagement toolpaths.

New things

• HSMAdvisor can now print!
  For now you can print a screenshot of application window. Make sure to select "Album" layout in your printer settings, otherwise portion of the window may get cut off.
  Tool library printing is next in line to be done.
• User Library Export and Import in XML format is now available.
  You can use it to back up your tool library and share library files with others.
• Library Tabs are now right-clickable by mouse- this allows to right click on the library tab and select desired action like "Delete" "Merge" and "Rename".
• Speeds for some tool and stainless steels have been revised.
  Couple of materials were added.

Things updated and improved

• Improved tool deflection model.
• Improved and fixed machine and tool limits trigering.
• Creation of new Tool or Cut now forces newly-created tool/cut to get loaded, so you dont have to search it from the drop-down list- it becomes active right away.
• Viewing and editing of tool/cut info in myCutDB page now does not close opened tool tree.
• Tool material and Work Material are now a single column. Its called Tool&Work Material and it shows tool material for Tool rows and work material for Cut rows

Sevaral weeks ago i saw a post on CNCZone.

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....





...to this!

Read More 

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.

Sticky RPM

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 and Matt 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)

Threading Machine Definition Import

I recently had to machine an aluminum mold cavity.

7 inches deep. With 5 degree wall draft and a 60 thou radius going all the way down. Roughing was not an issue, but for semi-finishing and finishing i had to manufacture these two extension holders.

Both tools have runout of less than 0.001

The one for bigger 3/8 tapered ballnose cutter is shrink fit- i mounted it using torch.

The smaller tool is a 3/32 tapered ballnose cutter from Harvey Tool.
I could not bore to correct size, and had to ream right on.
The tool is mounted with a set-screw from both sides to prevent deflection caused by unequal clamping pressure.

13640634846051.jpg

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