Spreadsheet Machinists Toolbox

Has anybody seen or got an open-source Object-Orientated Program (OOP - think Visual Basic) or spreadsheet "lookalike" to the Machinists Toolbox software. This software provides amongst many items, calculation of rpm for different metals, material diameter etc. In other words a software package that transforms the many tables accessible in lathe and milling handbooks and manuals into an easy spreadsheet or OOP format (with drop-down lists etc). If not, then I will create one myself and if successful, post it and make it available to this forum.

Have a look through Marv's various programmes, there is one for cutting speeds

If you've got a tablet or smart phone there are a number of apps available that will fore-fill most or all of your needs. Some are free, and others have prices from less than £1 to about £16.

Thanks to JasonB regarding Marv's programmes - they are mostly DOS or windows based - but I can use these to create my own App.

Hi Gary - thanks for that info - installed Machinist's Buddy for £1..2 from Google - just to see what it had. It's Imperial centric, lacks any units in any calculation (as a scientist I find this the ultimate disgrace) and when working out rpm for lathe work asks for "Dia. of Cutter" when it should be diameter of the work. So, if this is the standard of app available - then I will still create my own anyway.

I don't see that you need units as you should have an idea of what the answer is on these sort of calculations.

I suggest faffing around with an electronic gizmo everytime you start machining will soon get boring. Just cut a piece of paper the size that fits on that empty flat area of your mill column and jot down 6 diameters and speeds. Use the old grey cells unaided to interpolate between the noted combinations.

FSWizard ?

+1

Works great even on my old phone

FSWizard

Hi Collin

I made up a simple calculator a while back using Excel.

I use it with my mill which has fixed feeds and speeds via gearing. If your mill is similar change the settings in the sheet to fit your machine then you will get a chart showing the available ranges for the particular cutter you are using.

The calculation is based on the amount of metal removed within the horsepower available and the size of the cutter.

settings outside the range are marked on the chart

The sheet is unprotected so you can adjust it to fit your parameters.

Link: Below:
**LINK**

Regards
John

Wind it up until it screams, then back it off two notches.

Who needs steeking spreadsheets ?

Gee John....

Simple really...... Those of us who do not like our HSS cutters turning Blue, or the sound of the of a nice new rather expensive carbide cutter snapping and maybe whizzing past our ear; also quite disturbing.

Under loading or overloading a cutter is not good... It is also very inefficient wasting tome and money if you are in business.

The spread sheet is by no means optimised it does however allow you to tweak the values until you get a good working model for your particular machine using its unique parameters and the work you are doing.

Regards
John

When I got my vertical milling machine, I knew nothing about using it, I got a 50 mm face cutter with it and I asked the sales man about using it, he said " put on about 900 rpm, about 1 mm depth of cut, and crank like hell".

Ian S C

The excellent model engineers Utilities can be found here

**LINK**

Steve

Hi john s

Wind it up until thr cutter snaps the wind it down one notch.

That is what we used to do in aluminium!

Thanks guys,

Notice I did post it in the beginners forum, therefore all the long-term experience quoted above, e.g. blueing, screaming cutters etc., counts for nought at this stage of my engineering rites of passage. I'm also a scientist who has developed software - so the idea of developing an application also appealed to me. If a novice scientist wanted to know the upwind concentration distribution of a soil methane emission (probably makes as much sense to engineers as metal cutting makes to me at present), I would instruct him in the first instance to look at the mathematical model that describes this, even though I could tell him from experience exactly what it was just by looking at the local weather and terrain.

One thing
I was taught to determine the speed of a cutter was to spin it up until You could just see the flutes as they rotated. It's conservative. This is simplified but may save a beginner a cutter until they get some experience. Works better with bigger cutters as they are easier to see.