[aarggh]

Terry,

Glad everything worked out for you.
I will try to transfer it to a previous .NET version on next update anyway so that more people can use my FSWizard hassle-free.

Please post back what do you think about interface and the results.

Did anyone notice "in" and other labels near most input fields are actually clickable and change input to metric values and back?

Brilliant! Thanks heaps for this!

cheers,
Ian

[SCzEngrgGroup]

zero_divide,

I have one question - I notice you use a much higher SFPM for 6061 than I've seen before. Most recommendations I've seen are 300-400, while you use 650. I'm curious if this has an effect on tool life. What kind of life do you get with a 1/2" HSS endmill?

Also, would be nice if, on the stand-alone version, settings were saved on exit, and if the user could enter SFPM, and perhaps chipload, if desired.

Regards,
Ray L.

[cncoperator]

Zero divide,

Wanted to try your stand alone verision, but it requires net v4.0, which isn't on my tormach controller, and without an internet connection, I can't install it.

Any ideas?

Terry

I think it's very poor practice to install anything on a Tormach controller beyond what is provided by Tormach. Anything that can cause a timing interruption of even a few micro seconds can cause rough performance even to the point of loss of position. Tormach has issued a white paper on the subject Engineering Documents - Tormach Machine Controller | Tormach LLC | We provide personal small CNC machines, CNC tooling, and many more CNC items It's is unfortunate that the Tormach controller looks like a general purpose Windows computer when it is really a dedicated cnc controller that shouldn't run anything but controller software

[zero_divide]

For 2 flute standard 1.25" long HSS endmill i get around 5000RPM at 37 IPM for 0.250 deep slotting (i used to run part like that all the time before we went all carbide) . its not even very high and tool life is guite good.
Here is the FSWizard calculation page
That considering you have a rigid machine and flood coolant.
Pretty much industial setup.

I do not know if Tormach is gonna be able to take that cut anyway. This is where i need some feedback from you on what works and what doesnt on light machines.

You should definately decrease SFM when dry machining aluminum.

Manufacturers recommend 300-400SFM for pretty much all kinds of aluminums just to be safe.
But 650 SFM for 6061 is ok hor HSS. All you need to do is actually cut (not rub) material so that heat gets carried away with thick chips.

Regarding saving data on exit and manual SFM/Chipload oferrides:
I am actually working on it right now, but it has to be done as a part of User Tool Library.
So, doing this right way takes a while.

But i am getting there.
Thanks for the interest.

[MFchief]

cncoperator,

Thanks of your concerns about using the controller for other things. I certainly agree in principle, but I envision using the calculator only while not operating the mill, just doing a quick check for F/S then actually closing the calculator program. I don'g see how that would affect operations?

If I'm wrong, please smack me!

Terry

[cncoperator]

cncoperator,

I certainly agree in principle, but I envision using the calculator only while not operating the mill, just doing a quick check for F/S then actually closing the calculator program. I don'g see how that would affect operations?

Terry

I'm clueless if any particular piece of software will cause problems, but there does seem to be a lot of changes to the Tormach OS when .NET Framework - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is loaded

[SomeWhatLost]

fwiw, the Tormach controller isn't running windows (as such), it is running MachOS (ok, so it is just XPe with a bunch of stuff stripped out, but still, seems like it may be a bad idea to put the stuff that they worked so hard to strip out, back in...of course, at the end of the day, I guess this is more of one of those YMMV type of deals...)

anyway, I have a question, every time I set the Max RPM to 5100, it turns red? why is that? seems to still poop out reasonable F&S's through...
is it just discriminating against me because I only have a little mill that can't run at a billion RPM or am I doing something wrong?

also does setting the Speed & Feed %'s to ~60% seem to make sense for the Tormach, as it isn't a multi-billion dollar super mill?

[zero_divide]

fwiw, the Tormach controller isn't running windows (as such), it is running MachOS (ok, so it is just XPe with a bunch of stuff stripped out, but still, seems like it may be a bad idea to put the stuff that they worked so hard to strip out, back in...of course, at the end of the day, I guess this is more of one of those YMMV type of deals...)

anyway, I have a question, every time I set the Max RPM to 5100, it turns red? why is that? seems to still poop out reasonable F&S's through...
is it just discriminating against me because I only have a little mill that can't run at a billion RPM or am I doing something wrong?

also does setting the Speed & Feed %'s to ~60% seem to make sense for the Tormach, as it isn't a multi-billion dollar super mill?

Max RPM simply limits the RPM result its gonna give you.
say if 650SFM for 1/4" endmill works out to 20000 RPM and 167 IPM.
The MaxRPM of 5000 limits the RPM to 5000 and feed to 16 IPM accordingly.

Works the same for all other limits.

It only goes red to show that the limit was tripped, so you see its the max for your machine.

regarding SFM/Feedrate overrides. you of course may use those and also Torque Limit.
Torque limit will not affect rates for smaller end mills but for bigger ones it will reduce the feedrate.
So once you figured out comfortable torque limit for your machine, you don't need to play with SFM/FEED overrides anymore.

Industrial machines I work on handle up to 150% on both overrides.

[zero_divide]

New version 0.013 is available for download.

Material database has been updated. Stuff is now sorted according to material group.

Also Font Scaling is now fixed: this should fix all problems with text boxes crawling all over each other when users are using large system fonts.

Also all the data you typed in is saved on exit and retrieved back when application is opened again.

Also it does not need .NET framework 4.0 anymore: it should work with .NET v2.0

You can get it here FSWizard Standalone

[SquibLoad]

Thanks for your efforts.

I attempted to install the latest version, and it fails. Prior version installed correctly.

FYI symptoms: Win7 OS, fails attempting to create FSWizard dir in program files directory. If you hand create a directory, it then fails attempting to extract EXE file. In both cases, it fails with a message that Admin privs needed. User is the admin, so something else is going on.

[zero_divide]

Thanks for your efforts.

I attempted to install the latest version, and it fails. Prior version installed correctly.

FYI symptoms: Win7 OS, fails attempting to create FSWizard dir in program files directory. If you hand create a directory, it then fails attempting to extract EXE file. In both cases, it fails with a message that Admin privs needed. User is the admin, so something else is going on.

Can you try to de-download it again: i updated the link there.
Please tell me whether it works or no.

[SquibLoad]

Can you try to de-download it again: i updated the link there.
Please tell me whether it works or no.

I'd be happy to try, but site appears to be broken. I only get black pages, navs go nowhere and display nothing.

[Bill Buzzell]

I think it's very poor practice to install anything on a Tormach controller beyond what is provided by Tormach. Anything that can cause a timing interruption of even a few micro seconds can cause rough performance even to the point of loss of position. Tormach has issued a white paper on the subject Engineering Documents - Tormach Machine Controller | Tormach LLC | We provide personal small CNC machines, CNC tooling, and many more CNC items It's is unfortunate that the Tormach controller looks like a general purpose Windows computer when it is really a dedicated cnc controller that shouldn't run anything but controller software

Yeah Windows is a great environment for the design side of CNC files but is not well suited for a Real-time system. The Tormach guys did good if they are running on Windows as it is. If you introduce an app that doesn't account for the RT concerns that Tormach worked out, you might load back in routines intentionally left out via unseen libraries etc.

[slowtwitch]

Thanks for your efforts.

I attempted to install the latest version, and it fails. Prior version installed correctly.

FYI symptoms: Win7 OS, fails attempting to create FSWizard dir in program files directory. If you hand create a directory, it then fails attempting to extract EXE file. In both cases, it fails with a message that Admin privs needed. User is the admin, so something else is going on.

Even if your logged in as an admin, you may still have to right click the exe. file and hit run as administrator.

[BAMCNC.COM]

Ah, you just beat me to it.

I'm excited to try this program out today, thanks!

[Bubba]

Just visited and still getting black screens:{(

Looking forward to trying it.

[zero_divide]

Just visited and still getting black screens:{(

Looking forward to trying it.

Sorry guys.
WebServer's MYSQL database was down for a while.
But now everything is fixed.

[Bubba]

Sorry to disagree, but tried in two different browsers and still broke:{(

[zero_divide]

Sorry to disagree, but tried in two different browsers and still broke:{(

Ok-OK how about now!!

[Bubba]

Yep,
Its fixed, downloaded and installed. Not to give it a try.
Thanks for all your efforts.