Feeds and speeds software?

[Leadhead]

Any suggestions please for modestly priced software to calculate speeds and feeds.

[magicniner]

It depends on your definition of modestly priced but I use HSM Advisor and have found it to be excellent, you can run it as a free demo for 30 days before deciding whether to purchase,

- Nick

[komatias]

Hi Leadhead,

there are two good priced ones that I use:

Gwizard from CNCCookbook.com expensive but will allow you to buy a life long license

And

FSWizard: http://zero-divide.net/index.php?page=fswizard ( The website version is free but materials are limited)

The latter also has an Android app that costs around £12.

To be honest, I cross check between the two to be sure things do not go south.

Some CAM programs will do the calculations for you too but again, double check.

Regards

George

[Chaz]

I use FS Wizard and happy with it for what I need.

I found some of the others such as GWizard too complicated and with so many variables, easy to make a mistake.

Once you find feeds / speeds that work for your setup, you will know what numbers to use if you cut the same type of material instead of a lot of variation.

[Leadhead]

Thanks - I am working with FS wizard 30 day trial. When you get more deeply into it, the comprehensive contents are more apparent. Very impressive. Probably get my purse out of the attic and go for the subscription.

George - All arrived thanks"

[Boyan Silyavski]

I use the 3 Year Floating License Subscription of HSM advisor which includes the FS wizard for android. I still have to try the FS wizard though.

I believe that's best for starters, as the program is constantly updated with better features. It has tons of features that help understand better whats happening while cutting, which i see as the main benefit.

Most importantly with a glance i can see the trade off between material removal rate, spindle power for the cut, feed rate and depth and quality of cut. So i can adjust accordingly.

[Rye]

At the moment I have a 6 mm 4 flute end-mill (broke my 3mm and still waiting for more bits to arrive). I need to cut a shape out of 4 mm acrylic, but I'm not sure the speed & feed-rates I'm using are correct(16000 RPM with a feed rate of 550). I've just had a go at the on-line FS Wizard and it looks fairly decent, but a little complicated - so I'm not sure if I'm setting it up correctly(it gave me 16000 RPM with FR 1623).

What speed/feed rates would you guys recommend for cutting acrylic with a generic 6 mm 4 flute end-mill?