Choose your Tool Type, Tool Material and Tool Coating

Cutting parameters depend not only on the type of tool you are using, but also on the material it is made of and its coating.

We have the largest number of tool types, tool materials and coatings to choose from than any other Speed and Feed calculator out there

Tool Types

Here is the list of currently available tool types:

End Mills

• Solid End Mill
  A regular finishing or medium-machining end mill. Not suitable for deep or heavy cuts.
• HP/Roughing End Mill
  A High Performance or Roughing end mill capable of deep cuts.
• Indexed End Mill
  An end mill with replaceable edges or inserts. Usually Roughing.
• Indexed Face Mill
  Another Type of cutting gool with replaceable inserts designed to clean up large horizontal surface area of the workpiece.
• Helical Indexed End Mill
  A multiple flute indexed mill with large flute length capable of narrow but very deep cuts.
• High Feed Mill
  An indexed or solid end mill, with very shallow lead angle, that utilizes axial chip thinning effect allowing it to achieve very high feed rates comparable to tools of equal size and length.
  This Tool Type  requires user to turn on Chip Thinning compensation in the Comp. panel
• V-Bit Engraver
  A normally single flute solid end mill normally used for engraving.
• Chamfer Mill
  Another type of solid or indexed mill that has particular Lead Angle and is normally used to add chamfers to sharp corners on your workpiece.

Drills

• Jobber Twist Drill
  A regular solid twist drill, nothing special.
• Hi-Helix Parabolic Drill
  A drill that has special geometry allowing it to drill deeper holes with fewer peck cycles.Usually features higher flute helix, split drill point, thicker core and rolled heel.
• Spade Drill
  A drill with single replaceable cutting tip that looks like a spade.
• Indexed Drill
  A drill that has 2 staggered indexable inserts. One located closer to the center, the other- to the outside.
  This drill type has only ONE effective cutting edge.
• Straight Flute for Hard Metal
  A drill that has straight flutes and used primarily for hardened steels and is unsuitable for soft materials.
• Reamer
  Regular reamer - tool that is used to finish holes to high degree of dimensional accuracy and surface finish.
• Counterbore
  A tool, usually with a pilot tip that is used to create a recess in a surface of a workpiece in already-existing hole for a head of a screw to fit in.

Threading Tools

• Thread Mill
  A milling tool thats sole purpose is to mill internal and external threads onto already existing features like holes and bosses.
• Forming Tap
  A tap that uses forming action to form a thread in a drilled hole.
  threads produced this way tend to be stronger and tool itself tends to have longer life.
  Recommended for malleable materials under 40RC (400HB) in hardness.
  Tap holes need to be drilled to larger size than for regular cutting taps.
• Tap
  A regular Tapping tool.

Turning Tools

• Boring Bar
  A tool used to increase internal diameter in a drilled or milled hole.
• Turning - Profiling
  A turning tool that is used for either profiling or facing.
• Turning - Grooving
  A grooving tool that is used to produce narrow cylindrical grooves by plunging into the material.

Tool Materials

Here is the list of available tool materials:

• HSS
  High Speed Steel - invented in the old times when using it really meant high speeds.
  Since the advancements in metallurgy with tough to machine materials becoming more common, its use for milling tools is limited to mainly non-ferrous alloys and plastics.
  Drilling tools, especially Reamers and Taps are still, however are made of HSS
• HSCoblat
  A variation of HSS that has higher Cobalt content (usually 8%) giving it higher hardness at high temperatures.
• Carbide
  Tungsten Carbide - an extremely hard cutting material capable of maintaining its properties at high cutting forces and temperatures.
  There are many different grades of tungsten carbide used for cutting tools and inserts, but for sake of simplicity (really i could have added 5 most used ones. but do you really want me to?) we assume that the carbide grate is suitable to the material AND its application. IE: Do not pick up an end mill designed for Aluminum and try to use it on hardened steel. Not only the cutting geometry will be wrong, but also carbide grade mill likely be different.
• PCD Diamond
  Polycrystalline Diamond - a synthetic diamond that is used on non-ferrous materials where tool life is very important such as Graphite, Fiberglass and Aluminum.
• Ceramic
  Ceramic a synthetic material that features extremely high hardness even at elevated conditions.
  It is used to literally liquefy workpiece material at extremely high cutting speeds and relatively low chiploads.
  Used on difficult - to -machine ferrous alloys such as hardened tool steels, hardened stainless steels and super alloys.

Coatings

Here is the list of available coatings:

• TiN
  Titanium Nitride - a golden- coloured coating used to prolong life of a tool
• TiCN
  Titanium Cubic Nitride - a high-performance coating that allows to increase cutting speeds.
• TiAlN
  Titanium Aluminum Nitride  - a high-performance coating that at high cutting temperatures transforms into even harder version of itself.
  Often used dry.Applications range from soft to hardened steels, and from stainless steels to super alloys 
• AlTiN
  Same as TiAlN, but harder and with higher Aluminum composition.
  Allows higher cutting speeds than TiAlN
• AlCrN
  Aluminum Chromium Nitride - another high-performance coating widely used on super-alloys for its extremely high hardness and high temperature resistance
• ZrN
  Zirconium Nitride - Coating used on non-ferrous alloys (mainly aluminums) for its high lubricity and hardness.
  Greatly extends tool life.

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