The History of CNC Cookbook

CNC Cookbook was founded by Bob Warfield, a software engineer and lifelong machinist, as a place to share what he learned about CNC machining and to build better software for machinists. This is the story of the site, and of what happened to it after Bob passed away in 2024.

Bob Warfield

Bob had his first machining experience in the 1960s, when a machinist named Charlie Brown showed him how to machine a shaft for a telescope he was building on a South Bend lathe. He was hooked from then on. He put himself through school consulting for the CAD software companies of the day, including Computervision and Intergraph, and worked on CAD/CAM and machining software ever after.

In software, Bob built Quattro Pro and ran engineering at Borland, starting in 1984. His name is on a number of patents, including the one for the notebook tabs that are now standard in spreadsheets like Excel. He went on to become a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, and CNC Cookbook was his eighth startup. He called it his favorite: the first company he started around his lifelong passion for machining.

Building CNC Cookbook

Bob started CNC Cookbook to help everyone become a better CNC'er, whatever their skill level. The blog archive goes back to 2006, and over the years the site grew into one of the most popular CNC resources on the internet, with guides to G-code, feeds and speeds, GD&T, tooling, CNC routers, and DIY machine building.

The first thing Bob noticed when he looked at software for machinists was that it didn't follow the practices of the broader software industry, and didn't help machinists choose the best options so much as give them more options. So he wrote his own:

• G-Wizard Calculator, a feeds and speeds calculator built on cutting physics and a large tooling database.
• G-Wizard Editor, a G-code editor and simulator with conversational CNC wizards.
• G-Wizard Estimator, for estimating machining time and quoting jobs.

CNC Cookbook was a one-person company. Bob wrote the software, wrote most of the articles, and answered the customer email himself.

After Bob

Bob passed away suddenly in 2024. Because he ran CNC Cookbook on his own, his passing left the company with no path forward, and the original CNC Cookbook ceased operations. Read the announcement.

The site was in danger of being lost, so fans of the site bought the domain name and the content from Bob's estate to preserve it for the CNC community. The site was moved to a new home and rebuilt, keeping Bob's articles in place.

We don't have the source code for the G-Wizard products, so for now they can't be sold, updated, or supported. We're working to bring G-Wizard back: see the G-Wizard page for the latest, and to sign up for updates. The last released version of G-Wizard Calculator is still available to download.

CNC Cookbook Today

Bob's articles are still here, and we're working to keep them accurate and useful:

• Free calculators for the jobs G-Wizard used to help with, from feeds and speeds to ISO fits and hardness conversion. See all the free calculators.
• CutViewer, a free browser-based G-code viewer and simulator, in place of G-Wizard Editor.
• Bob's guides, including the free G-code course, the G-code list, and the feeds and speeds guide.

If you have questions or comments, email us at support@cnccookbook.com. More about CNC Cookbook.