Machining Calculator Software (FREE)

[carlbigman]

The IPM is based on many factors including number of flutes on the cutter, recommended chipload per tooth per revolution for a particular material, tool diameter, use of proper coolants, chip clearing effectiveness, etc. You can only get so much oomph out of any given cutter even at maximum shearing efficiencies in any particular material without force-feeding it so the tool chokes, gags, overheats, breaks down, and grinds to a halt. Just like those guys that lose the hot-dog eating contests when they just can't force-feed anymore! LOL Never force your tool to do more than the physics allow.

[carlbigman]

I always had trouble relating to trigonometry and remembering all the functions. I loved my little orange guide-book I had from Illinois Toolworks... without that I would have been totally lost... I was still pathetically slow doing trig though... thank God I didn't have to use it too often in the industries and with the blueprints I usually used. I spent most of my career as an Inspector anyway and didn't excel at real hardcore machining when I was in the trade as a Machine Operator and budding Machinist, mainly. I only did it as a novice for a few years before getting my first Inspector's job. I can honestly say I was a half-assed Machinist and very weak at doing random new setups without advice from a few real Machinists in the shop but I was a much better and very discerning Inspector with eyes like a hawk. LOL. I did grow in skill as an Inspector but I hated working with very large stuff at one job. I was much better with smaller stuff like Medical Devices, Telecommunications and Satellite equipment, and things that were smaller than a bread-box. LOL. That in itself was much more diverse anyway and I learned much more about the whole manufacturing process and meeting tough standards for traceability and documentation in that highly regulated industry anyway, as well as interfacing more with outside vendors, advanced engineering, material review boards, material planners, and etc. I got lots of specialty cross-training in optics, mechanical, electrical, electronics, destructive product testing, sterility and packaging testing, cable, harness, circuit board, connectors, hybrids, metal-finishing and plating, and source inspections. I was predominantly a mechanical guy and often worked to close tolerances of +/- .0002 and sometimes closer with highly specialized equipment including programming and operating a fully C.N.C. controlled C.M.M., using a digital electronic height gage, and many other special tools and equipment. I just hated trig and inspecting some parts larger than my torso, and that's pretty huge! LOL

[carlbigman]

Even the Machinery's Handbook will tell you that the data listed there is pretty much a ballpark range of suggested starting points for rough machining cuts and finish machining cuts anyway. Other variables may allow you to stretch those recommended speeds and feeds a bit and also the choice of coated cutters or plain, etc. as well as choices of coolants and chip removal such as using chipbreakers on your tools or high tech cutter inserts. I say check your cutter periodically for signs of excess buildup on edges, edge breakdown or dulling, recast materials sticking to the cutter, etc. If your cutters aren't lasting long enough to produce enough pieceparts cost effectively perhaps you should slow down your aggressive production time just a bit. Also the machine finish desired in microinches will give you a huge hint about cutter wear, aesthetic customer finish surface finish requirements, whether the surface in question is a critically functioning precision load bearing "working surface", etc.

[carlbigman]

Calculating the rates based on maximum spindle speed like that may work well as a general rule, but be especially careful and go even slower on your SFPM with harder alloys containing much nickel, titanium, or chromium content or some of the more exotic alloys or any metals that are NOT considered to be "free machining" alloys or grades because these tougher materials may require a far lighter chipload per tooth per revolution of the cutter than most aluminums, brasses, and softer irons and free-machining steels.

Some extreme alloys such as hastalloy, waspalloy, inconel, carpenter 42 stainless steel, and other very difficult to machine metals will snap your cutter like a cookie and maybe even break your light duty home hobby mill itself or hurt you badly when it does, if not run at EXACTLY the right speeds and feeds and conditions. As a matter of fact, these alloys MUST be annealed (softened through heat-treating) to become in a more free-machining state or at least making some of them machinable at all, and then some can only be cut with mucho horsepower industrial machine-tools. Then they MUST be rehardened (if that original hardness range was required for the end product that they are made into). To all you novice machinists and home hobbyists out there NEVER just start cutting away at any piece of very heavy, dense, hard alloys or randomly found pieces of metal, especially if obtained from an industrial location or it is identified with a strange name or alloy number from an industrial site or even surplus military base area or old machine shop. Be very careful and try to know your metals better or at least approach any that don't tend to rust much with caution, as those are usually the harder alloys with far less iron and far more nickel, chromium, titanium, etc. in them.

Never machine anything identified as Magnesium or having an extremely high Magnesium content because it spontaneously combusts with the machining shear-point temperatures and cannot even be extinguished by most normal firefighting equipment when it does catch on fire.

Again, to reiterate here a bit, coolants or special cutters matter a great deal with any materials. We used to use only continuous pressurized air directed very closely and exactly on the cutter as a coolant for Cast Iron, for example, as many oils were inefficient at cooling and carrying away the chips efficiently for that material. It is more important to blast the chips away quickly as that material readily absorbs heat and heats up so fast. The chips would come off and turn deep blue before our eyes as they stream to the floor with smoking trails... They hurt like hell if one landed on unprotected skin too! LOL... I got smart and wore long-sleeved shirts when machining that material, even in the hottest summer months.

Cast iron also destroys your machine tool "ways" and slides as like materials or the harder material of the two will abrade each other and the machine tool ways are cast iron too, therefore they are of basically the same hardness and abrasiveness. If you ever machine cast iron, tape cardboard way covers onto the ways and slides of your machine to avoid eating them up and making your machine lose critical accuracy. Then clean all the cast iron dust off everywhere with a lightly oiled cloth before removing the way covers or running other jobs with other materials. Don't let the chips or even powdery residue work its' way in between the machine bearing surfaces or it will keep destroying your machine with every movement after that.

There is so much to know about materials. I do recommend at least getting a glimpse at a Machinery's Handbook even if you have to just peruse it in a bookstore or a copy of a friend's now and then if you have any real serious need to know something.

Most people don't even know there are hundreds of different grades of regular steels and stainless steels (even medical grades with zero nickel content in them, a known cancer-causing carcinogenic element), many different alloys of aluminum (even structural and aircraft airframe grades), many types of brass, various blends of bronzes, etc.

I was sort of a materials expert as raw stock materials Inspector for a lot of years in one job I had long ago. I used to even have to hack of a small chunk of every actual rod, sheet, plate, or strip of many materials and send them all out to an independent testing lab for spectrographic analysis of the actual composition of each piece, then compare their reports to known industry standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials (A.S.T.M. Metals Grading Standards) and the Aluminum Association of America's own industry standards, for example. Proceed with caution in a shop environment and always wear eye protection glasses, full face shields, hearing protectors, earplugs, etc. even in a basement workshop. Be safe... don't be sorry.

[sunil29]

Where from can i download the calculator? Please let me know.

[angelababy]

We've got different interests though, it seems. I'm starting off with a right angle calculator and adding similar features like sine bar buildups and also speeds and feeds. If you're looking for things to add, a right angle triangle calc would be an excellent addition.

[Cmailco]

Kennametal's Feed/Speed/HP Calculator for Milling
Kennametal's Tap/Drill Calculator

Lots of other useful calculators at Kennametal's site as well.

[evrenalex]

dear forum members, i would like to ask if there is a software which can convert the following:

NCP to TAP files

VEC to STL

VEC to TAP

thanks.