Do you guys rely on calculators or gut feel for feed rates?

[Torneko_Taloon]

Curious how everyone’s approaching feed rates these days. Do you guys mostly rely on calculators, CAM software, or just go by gut feel and experience? I’ve been running a small shop here in Pennsylvania, and I’ve noticed the “by feel” approach seems to work better on our older Haas machines, especially when cutting aluminum or mild steel. The calculators get me in the ballpark, but sometimes they feel too aggressive in real life. Do you find the software numbers reliable, or do you usually tweak feeds once you hear how the cut sounds?

 

[Aliahan_Erdrick]

I’ll plug numbers into HSMAdvisor or Fusion just to get close, then tweak once I see the chip color and hear the spindle load. Feed calculators assume your setup is rock solid, which most small shops aren’t. Real life has chatter, worn tools, and bad clamping.

 

[kvom01]

I use Gwizard.

 

[Jon S]

Gut feel. Obviously a lot of stuff is repeat work so you get to know and have drop down settings, but every now and again, something different, pay attention to the machine and even adjust on the fly.

 

[stanstocker]

I've noticed many folks tend to be too cautious with larger cutters and don't appreciate that with tiny (< 1mm) cutter how severely cutter deflection becomes the over ruling consideration. GWizard saved me many 0.3 and 0.5 mm end mills over the years as it does a very good job with deflection calculations. I was trashing the pricey little beasts left and right no matter how correct my feeds and speeds seemed to be until the first day I use GWizard. That was long ago, perhaps the current calculators are better about DOC considerations as well as chip loads and thicknesses.

 

[kvom01]

The author of GWzard passed away without turning the business/software over to someone else, so it's no longer available for purchase. Previously licensed version still work.

 

[stanstocker]

The author of GWzard passed away without turning the business/software over to someone else, so it's no longer available for purchase. Previously licensed version still work.

Had no idea of this, I'd been trying to get him to update my email address from my old commercial domain for years without any response although he would barrage folks with marketing emails. Do you (or anyone here) know of a calculator that is aware of cutter deflection? Finding DOC value to avoid excessive deflection while maintaining good chip load via small cutter destructive testing is an expensive alternative

 

[mhenry]

Stan - have you looked into HSMAdvisor? It has a tool to consider cutter deflection. I think that there is also a companion app for phones - FSAdvisor.

https://hsmadvisor.com/

 

[stanstocker]

Stan - have you looked into HSMAdvisor? It has a tool to consider cutter deflection. I think that there is also a companion app for phones - FSAdvisor.

https://hsmadvisor.com/

I hadn't, but I will. Thank you!