As a technical guy, I like to repair things and make new things. My home shop includes tools for woodworking and metalwork projects. I love to get in the shop and smell the cutting oil, Thread-Magic fluid, and freshly cut wood. My shop has several wall charts that list hole diameters, drill sizes, corresponding tap-and-die information, and metric and English measurements, and I refer to them often.
But usually I must grab a calculator to figure out cutting feed speeds, perform metric-to-English conversions, make trigonometric calculations, and so on. So an advertisement for the Machinist Calc Pro from Calculated Industries caught my eye. The handheld calculator should be a hit with mechanical and mechatronic engineers, as well as hobbyists who enjoy making metal chips and swarf on lathes and milling machines in their shops.
The Machinist Calc Pro. (Source: Calculated Industries)
This calculator computes speeds and feed rates for milling, turning, and drilling: cutting speed, spindle speed (RPM), feed rate (inches/minute), cutting feed, etc. Built-in drill and thread size tables (in inches and metric dimensions) will keep you from running to a wall chart or reference handbook. You can even enter the cutting angle and drill size to calculate the drill point cut depth. Key in numeric, fractional, or metric thread or drill sizes, and the calculator displays data for a tap, a roll tap, close and free-fit drill sizes, plus pitch, major, and minor diameters. (A roll tap deforms metal to form threads, while a regular, fluted tap cuts metal to form threads.)
The calculator also performs basic math calculations and unit conversions. If you want to add dimensions, for example, you can mix units such as 12.5 inches, 58mm, 5¼ inches, and so on. You also can choose the resolution for the results on the LCD. If you need trig and inverse-trig sine, cosine, and tangent operations, the calculator provides them.
Calculated Industries has an interesting history. The two founders started in real estate careers and realized they needed a way to perform standard property and financial calculations. Though a large calculator company had a similar product, the founders decided in 1978 to create and customize their own dedicated real estate calculator and sell it to other real estate and financial professionals. Over time, their company expanded its line to include calculators for construction, pipefitting, estimating, and machining. You can buy a KitchenCalc Pro-Master Chef to convert kitchen measurements and scale recipes up or down. I already have a Quilter's FabriCalc calculator for Mrs. T on my Christmas list.
Click here to download the calculator's 70-page instruction manual and watch eight short videos that show what the calculator can do. The Machinist Calc Pro sells for $79.95 and would make a nice gift for the mechanical gal or guy on your holiday list (hint, hint).
Jon, this sounds like the perfect complement to Machinery's Handbook. I wonder if they have an app for that, though. I tend to use my laptop to view drawings and access the internet while doing projects. One has to be careful. I probably should get a ruggedized one. This might also be a good app for a tablet, or phone with a larger screen.
I don't know if someone has created a Machinery's Handbook app. I love the paper version and refer to it often, The Machinist Calc Pro is quite a nice device. I'm still learning about many capabilities. The instruction manual includes many helpful examples. Happy Holidays.
Jon, The Google Play store does have the Machinery's Handbook App for $4.99. It also have the Machinist's Calculator ($3.95) and the Machinist Toolbox($3.99) apps as well.
I have a machine shop too, and also enjoy the cutting oil, machine, metal smells. But, I am starting to wonder if these smells are degrading my lung capacity over time. Those aren't natural scents
Even though my smartphone could run apps that does everything the calculator can, I don't like to take my cell into the shop. Oil and debris gets everywhere, and my phone is the last place I want to see it. This calculator, I would feel more comfortable having in the shop. I already have several small calcs out there covered in grim. However, at $70-80 dollars for the Calc Pro, I may have to pass for now. If it was more like $20, I'd consider it.
My giant, and free, drill chart on the wall has everything needed from tapping. Can't beat that price.
I have one of those wall charts, too, Cabe. A while ago a company called "Small Parts" printed the chart and either sold it or gave it away. Sadly, they no longer offer it but people can find others. I recomment having a local office-supply store or Kinkos/Fedex or the UPS Store nearby laminate such charts. That way they resist oil, dirt, and swarf.
The chart is that coveted when I should laminate it? It's about 3 feet by 2 feet or so. I actually have a few of them. I used to use the printed hand reference ones. I will have to see who made the bigger ones originally.
I rarely ever bother with feed calculations, except for threading. Even then my manual and CNC lathe both have automated options for doing the task. Out of curiosity, how often do you need to make speed calculations?
My chart is about 2 by 3 feet and laminating it at the local UPS Store cost about $3. I make feed calculations for most projects. I have a mini-lathe and a small Unimat. I suggested to the Calculates Industries people that a built-in tachometer might be useful in a new design. My lathe and mill don't have a digital control of RPMs.
If I have enough experience with the tools and materials I am cutting, I can usually guess close enough. However, it is easy to waste a lot of time cutting too slow, and/or burn up tools by missing the surface footage on the high side.
From my experience, people tend to use too low of feeds and speeds on carbide tools, and too high of speeds on high speed steel tools. People who are used to the feeds and speeds for HSS tend to be afraid to run the speeds and feeds that carbide wants to run at. After you run carbide for a while it is easy to accidentally push HSS tools too hard and burn them up.
During a recent meeting with engineering-school faculty and alumni, Contributing Technical Editor Jon Titus talked about whether colleges should educate generalists or specialists. What do you think?
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