Just got my pro and very new to CNC. Trying to learn speeds and feds. Does any use this app "G-Wizard? Do you have a tool crib that you share
Bob Warfield, the author of G-Wizard wrote a bit about this at:
- https://carbide3d.com/blog/2016/feed-and-speeds-part-1/
- https://carbide3d.com/blog/2016/feed-and-speeds-part-2/
There are a number of discussions of this:
I agree with @davidgjohnson that HSMAdvisor is a much better choice (my recently expired GWizard license was not renewed). 
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hey @gmack …I’m a month in and a still feel pretty overwealmed with the whole Feeds and Speeds thing. I’m slowly catching on, but it feels like a steep learning curve.
I just watched that video by @davidgjohnson and HSMAdvisor looks amazing, but I feel maybe it is overkill until I get a little more ‘educated’ in the F&S domain. On the other hand, maybe I should be starting to use this immediately because I will see the most benefit by using this immediately
Hence the question:
Option A: Give myself some more time, keep trialing, work with the speeds and feeds excel workbooks and then move on to HSMAdvisor
Option B: Start using HSMAdvisor now to help move the needle in terms of efficient cutting and work
Just in terms of background before you answer:
- S Pro Owner
- Only doing this as a hobby
- Cutting exclusively wood for now
- I’m not a trained engineer (but after two months on these forums I feel like an apprentice engineer who is learning on the job)
- Vcarve Pro user
If you’re using wood, don’t worry too much. First of all, the machine does really well in wood so it’s fine to start with something like Winston’s general recommendations and work your way up from there (feed override until it sounds wrong). Second, unlike metals or polymers, wood is a material with very large variations, both between species/products and directional (parallel/perpendicular to the grain). Therefore, it may well be that one set of parameters work perfectly on that first plywood board but not on the second, which happens to have higher resin content or some such.
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Note that there is a calculator just for wood at:
https://www.precisebits.com/calc
Just look up the Janka hardness for a wood which cuts well as well as the new wood you wish to cut:
https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Materials#Janka_Hardness