What's new:

• Revised chiploads for smaller endmills.
• Revised recommended Depths of Cut for different material types for endmills with various number of flutes.
• Improved Deflection model to include cutter lead angle.

In this update i have re-visited speeds and feeds area of the calculator.

Recommended Depth of Cut and Deflection calculation was revised.
At the same time Chiploads for endmills smaller than 3mm or 0.125" were reduced in half.

This resulted in most things regarding actual Speeds and Feeds remaining the same, but i believe this update works better as it considers material type and number of flutes to calculate recommended depth of cut.

Also Deflection calculation was changed for tapered endmills

Version v0.735 has just been released.

We now have 2 new tool types: Counterbore and Chamfer Mill.
They were added to match with similar tools in most CAM packages

Also we now have tool simulation graphics in the Results' area new Tool tab.

Here is a simulation of the new Chamfer Tool type:

Capture Wizard now has Tab Name field that allows Wizard to only capture the Target window when selcted tab is active.

Also Detault Tool Type, Tool Material and Tool coating fields were added.
you can now specify which tool will be picked if Wizard fails to recognise the tool type.

Oh pardon me!

Forgot to mention: We now have Surfcam 5.2, BobCAD-CAM v25 and v26 integration profiles.
you can load those from Profile manager tab on Capture Wizard form.

On a side note somebody from SprutCAM has asked me to create a profile for their package.
Looke like they have demo available for download, so i will probably do that very soon.
As far as I know, I do not really have any customers using that CAM.

But hey, Things change!

We all love getting positive feedback on anything we do.

For example hearing "good job" from our bosses. Or "nice work" from our co-workers....
Okay, Okay bosses do not normally tell anyone "good job", but anyway that would be nice!

I also like reading e-mails which people all over the world send thanking me for my work on FSWizard and HSMAdvisor calculators.
Telling their success stories and suggesting new features.

Most seem very surprised when they send a question on weekend and receive an answer withing a couple of hours.

Often people send pictures of their work and links to their own web sites.

It is nice that more and more professional machinists are using my software, but seeing it help create a work of art is a special feeling.

One of recent customers Daniel Gentile, uses HSMAdvisor to calculate cutting parameters for his custom knife production business.

Here is what he has to say:

HSMAdvisor enables me to efficiently do the math that saves me not just a lot of time as I can confidently often use higher speeds but also a lot of money, as I tend to break less of those expensive 2 and 3mm carbide tools that see a lot of use on my folder production. Also because I work with a dozen different materials - from D2 steel to Titanium to Bronze - and a lot of different cutter types and finish requirements it's just nice not to have to work with "guess-work" for the feeds and speeds.

Daniel Gentile, owner of FERRUM D Gentile, custom Knives & forging classes.

Here is a link to his web site.
https://www.dgentile.com/

Here is a link to his portfolio page filled by pattern welded forged blades and katanas!
https://www.dgentile.com/portfolio.html

If you are a fan of old school forging, custom knives and basically anything to do with knives and blacksmithing, you have got to check it out!

Another week another update!

A few days ago a topic popped up in CNCZone's BobCad-CAM forums regarding why speeds and feeds in above mentioned BobCAM were so crazy and unworkable.

Users were complaining and raving about such a "simple" thing like a good speed/feed calculator being missing from there.

This is actually a trend in pretty much any other CAM software package.

They sell tool to create toolpaths.
Many give tools to create 2D geometry and even real solids.

But very few CAM packages offer anything that even remotely resembles working starting cutting parameters.

It does seem bizarre and strange. But every CAM program "knows" type of material being worked on. It knows type of tool, its diameter and length.
It even knows flute length, cutting depth, width, ramp angle... pretty much everything.

But given all that they are unable to combine all this data and produce Speed and Feed that would not either break the cutter or melt it into the work-piece!

Anyway. Back to the topic.

Someone on that forum thread mentioned my old FSWizard.
It sparked quite a lot of interest, and i popped in and dropped a link to the latest version of HSMAdvisor, so that they actually try and see what a good calc can do.

As a result i have received a ton of emails filled with suggestions and thank-yous.

Apparently many did not even know anything about it and were surprised how well it worked for them.
One guy who just bought a license even said that his copy already paid for itself several times over within the first couple of days of using it!

To thank for enthusiasm, i quickly implemented some of those suggestions and i am now releasing them in this version 0.710

New thing are

• Adjustable font size and style. (in Settings) Allows to adjust global application font.
• Adjustable default values for Speed&Feed Overrides, Tool Productivity, Deflection and Torque Limits. (in Settings) You can now set values to which overrides reset by default.
• New Plunge Feedrate field shows up for milling tools.
  Non-Center cutting tools like Indexed endmills etc. will have plunge feed equal Zero.

Thanks everybody for support and suggestions!

As usual you can download the latest release on the Download page.

After almost 2 months since the last release the next update has just been uploaded to the google Play Store.

Version 1.32 follows in the footsteps of the HSMAdvisor.

It now too has latest material definitions and an updated custom material drop-down list.

This list now expands to the size of the screen overriding default Samsung's scroller (that they stole from iPhone).

Biggest update yet is a new Tap and Form Tap tool types.
You can now get not only cutting speed and feedrate for taps, but also calculate the best drill size for desired thread percentage.

New material list Tap Tap hole parameters

Since surface milling is more than half of what i do for a living, I decided to share some of my tips on that topic.

Generally you want to create a continuous toolpath that does not change directions too often.

Changing directions slows the machine down and reduction in feedrate affects deflection of the cutter. Different deflection means you get gouge marks on your surfaces.

When you have a long narrow piece its better to go along the long side to save on time and machine wear.
Also going along the longest side reduces the number of direction changes you will have to make

When milling cavities you need to first rough, then semi-finish then finish.

Leave 15 thou after roughing, 3 thou after semi-finishing and finish to zero. All with progressively smaller tools.
5 thou stepover will give you very good finish on most ball mills
3-5 thou chiploads are very common for surface finishing.

Ball mill will always give bad finish on shallow areas- the center is not cutting, but dragging around.
Also straight portion of the flute acts as a wiper and reduces scallop that the ball portion creates.

This is why going from top to bottom is safer and yields better surface finish.

The closer the wall taper angle to the taper of the flutes the better finish you will get.

There is another reason for always trying to go from top to bottom.

When taking material top to bottom you engage stock closer to the tip of the tool.

It makes cut more stable. It is more safe because you are less likely to bury the tool in stock unexpectedly.
Do not go from climb milling to conventional UNLESS you need to save some rapid time.
Pick up only climb milling and you are good to go.
Changing from climb to conventional will cause tool to deflect away from the work on climb and into the work during conventional pass. You will see zebra marks all over your surfaces.

I have just completed revising HSMAdvisor's material library.

Around 20 different materials have been added.
Some speeds and feeds were adjusted as well.

New library is not yet available in the official release, but you cen get it as a separate file from here

Just scroll to the bottom of the page there and download the file.
Instructions of how to use it are there as well.

Once a new update is ready to be published i will include the new library into the official release.

The list of added materials includes Toolox, Weldox and other pre-hardened steels.

Also graphite was added to hard non-metals.

In this release I have added CAD/CAM integration.

Please read the latest tutorial in HSMAdvisor Tutorials section here
This is a pretty Unique way of doing it.

It is still in the beta-mode.
But it is fully functional. I have tested it on MasterCAM and SurfCAM with great results.
While some functionality is not supported well on all cadcam packages, it is still much better than nothing.

Please send me your feedback on how it works with your CADCAM package.

I have also added a list of recently used materials.

Now material list will have 6 recently used items at the very top of it.
Later on i will allow user to enter whatever number of recent items he wants to see there. But for now its just 6.

New Computer ID and New License keys

Starting from this release i have changed how Computer ID keys are generated.
This was done to fix problems some of the users experienced when they added or removed additional hardware on their computers.

New Computer ID's mean License keys have been changed for all users as well.
Not to worry though, License keys will be automatically updated for all of our users, so no action from their side is required.

If you have active license. You will get a message telling you what happened and your license file will be updated automatically.

Some bugs got fixed as well.

All of them were pretty minor, nothing to write home about.

Material definitions got updated as well.

Added several materials, updated speeds and feeds for tool steels and stainless steels.

I still have to add some of the previously requested materials (like Weldox Graphite, etc) to the list.
And i am planning to add it in the next release.

Chiploads for micro-milling were changed as well.

Chiploads for micro-endmills (below 1/16 dia) were reduced significantly.

NOTE. THIS INTEGRATION MECHANISM HAS BEEN DEPRECIATED AND REMOVED FROM HSMADVISOR.

PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR MASTERCAM X9 AND MASTERCAM 2017 HOOKS FOR MASTERCAM

One of the most requested features in HSMAdvisor has long been integration with various CAD/CAM solutions available on the market.

There are two possible ways of achieving said task.

First way: using CAD/CAM API to create plugins to enable HSMAdvisor to "talk to" various software packages.
This road could produce the best results, however implementing it would be laborous and results not always very convinient to use.
Also developer(me) would have to create plugins for many dozens of cad/cam software packages. Muliply that by the fact that with each CADCAM release, a new version of plugin would need to be produced, tested and debugged. This work is for a whole software department and would call for a product far more expensive than what a lot of my customers could afford.

Second way: Grab tool, speed and feed data directly from the CAD/CAM window, process it and then update required information when the calculation is done.
This solution is easyer to implement and could prove to be the most convinient for user as well.

Need i tell you that i have chosen to go the easy way?

Without further delay let me introduce the first Speed and Feed calculator that can be integrated with a CAD/CAM solution by a user himself!

This is How it Works

Step One: User launches CAD/CAM solution. We will use MasterCAM x2 in our case.

A toolpath is programmed the usual way, a proper tool is selected and when it is time to enter your speed and feed data you launch HSMAdvisor.

On FSWizard page you first select

HEM is a relatively new term.

It means High Efficiency Milling. It only became available when constant tool engagement toolpahs became almost standard on most of the CAM software.

Unlike HSM that utilizes chip thinning effect, HEM relies on much larger widths of cut and thus chip thinning does not occur. What gives it its name is much higher material removal rate that would normally be possible.

When you are machining a pocket you are most often only milling at about 50% WOC. But nevertheless you need to calculate speeds and feeds based on the fact that the very first move and every corner will be full slotting action. Which means that the whole pocket needs to be machined at lower feedrate.

HEM uses constant engagement toolpths to make sure that this never happens and that Width of Cut remains optimal. Tool never needs to make a full slot so you can ramp up the feedrate as if you were doing outside profiling.

Here is a video of a 1/2" 3 flute endmill machining a 5/8" deep pocket in aluminum at full depth. Normally this pocket would have been machined in 2 steps at 150 inches per minute.

Using Constant Tool Engagement toolpaths we can go full depth at 0.175" stepover and 275 inches per minute.

The advantage of this method is obvious- Higher Productivity.

HEM is not ideal for all cases and each application merits its own method of machining, but its always nice to know more than one way to do your job.