CNC Feeds and Speeds Cookbook

Getting the best possible results from your CNC machine covers a lot of ground. To begin with, there are several different goals we might be trying to optimize for: - Best Material Removal Rates - Maximizing Tool Life - Good surface finish You'll need to decide what your priorities are among these three, as different techniques emphasize each goal and you can't necessarily get great surface finish, maximum material removal rates, and the best tool life all at once. In this series of articles, we'll go through some CNC Cookbook recipes that help you optimize for your goals, whatever they may be.

Note: This section supercedes my old Mill Surface Finish page and Lathe Surface Finish pages together with tons of new material I've collected since writing the original pages were written. It's also been broken down into more bite-sized pieces. It's still under construction, but once it's finished, I'll replace the old Mill Surface Finish page with this much broader set of articles.

Table of Contents

Here are the articles available for maximizing your CNC machining productivity.

signifies the most popular articles in each section if you want to skip ahead!

Basics Every Machinist Should Know

Basic Concepts for Beginners: You gotta start somewhere!

Chiploads, Surface Speed, and Other Concepts: Key concepts and terminology.

Calculating Feeds and Speeds: How do you calculate your feeds and speeds?

Toolroom vs Manufacturing Feeds and Speeds: Do you know the difference between toolroom and manufacturing feeds and speeds?

Coolant and Chip Clearing: Best practices for coolant and chip clearing on the mill.

Intermediate

Turning Down the Heat in a Cut: Reducing heat prolongs tool life.

Dry Machining: Yes, you can machine without flood coolant. Often, it's even better.

Tool Deflection Control: Critical to Your Success: Are you in control of tool deflection, or is it something that just happens?

Climb Milling vs Conventional Milling: There are times when Conventional is better!

Toolpath Considerations: How is your CAM program treating your tooling?

Ballnosed Tools and 3D Profiling

How To Choose a Stepover: Thoughts on how to optimize your stepover for best finish and shorter toolpaths.

Twist Drill Feeds and Speeds: Delving into the considerations for twist drill feeds and speeds.

V-Bits, Dovetails, and Other Exotic Cutters: Finding feeds and speeds for these less often used cutters.

Advanced

High Speed Machining: Tool Engagement Angle, Trochoidal Milling, Peeling, and all that Jazz.

Dealing With Chatter When Milling: Fixing Chatter via Rigidity or Tuning Speeds and Feeds.

Micro-Milling: How to avoid breaking those tiny little cutters.

Advantages and Pitfalls of Rigid Tapping

Long Reach Tools, Thin Walls, and Other Rigidity Challenges

Milling Tough Materials

Using a Cutting Knowledge Base to Beat Manufacturer's Recommended Feeds and Speeds

Quick Guides

Tips for Getting the Best CNC Milling Surface Finish: And the truth about mirror finishes.

Feeds and Speeds for Fly Cutters and Manual Mills: Tips and tricks for using G-Wizard with Manual Mills

Maximizing Material Removal Rates

Tips for Longer Tool Life

Recipes for Increasing Workholding Rigidity

Recipes for Toolholders and Tooling

CNC vs Manual Cutting Speeds: Why is CNC so much harder to figure out?

Videos

A Quick Video Course in Feeds and Speeds

Try the Free Trial Version of G-Wizard Speeds and Feeds Calculator...

No credit card required--just your name and email.