Carbide IQ

carbide insert decoder and parameter advisor.

One database. 13 makers’ published data, normalized — no guesses, no generated numbers.

checking…

ISO/ANSI insert decoder

Type the code off the box — get a full breakdown of the insert’s ISO geometry and information.

try:

Wear, speeds, breakers, grades, post trouble — pick a card, get the published answer.

Grade cross-reference

Enter the grade you trust — get its equivalents from 12 other makers.

Material identification

Type any material — get its ISO family, hardness range, and how it behaves in the cut.

Starting speeds & feeds

Pick the maker, material and grade — get the manufacturer’s recommended speed, feed and depth-of-cut windows, minimum to maximum.

Cutting speed by material

Published starting speeds — carbide through ceramic, CBN and PCD — from the makers’ own machining guides.

Chipbreaker cross-reference

Find the equivalent chipbreaker across 12 tool brands.

Material-based grade selection

Find the grades designed for the material you are working with.

Wear diagnosis

Pick what the worn edge looks like — get the likely cause and corrective action.

Post processor fixes

Common Mastercam post output problems — the cause, the edit, and how to prove it out safely.

Faster alternatives

Enter what you are running — get fit-checked alternatives from every maker, ranked by the speed the data supports.

Chip thinning calculators

Catalog numbers assume a full cut. Enter your real engagement — get the higher feed that keeps the same chip load on the edge.

Radial chip thinning calculator · round inserts & endmills

Catalog feed charts assume full engagement — for a round insert or an endmill, that’s a depth or stepover of half the diameter. On this slider that’s the 50%-of-diameter mark, the industry convention. Below it the chip runs far thinner, so the feed can rise substantially: enter your real cut and get the feed that puts a full-thickness chip back on the edge (its thickest point is the amber tick).

New feed /tooth
At the machine — optional, unlocks table feed & MRR

Below half a diameter the tooth never reaches the catalog chip thickness, so the feed can rise until it does. At 50% and past, the factor is 1 — run the catalog number.

Show the math
new feed = catalog feed ÷ √(1 − (1 − 2 × stepover ÷ diameter)²)

Axial chip thinning calculator · lead angle & high-feed cutters

Catalog feeds assume a square 90° edge. A lead-angle or high-feed cutter lays the same chip across more edge, thinning it — enter your lead angle and the feed rises to keep a full chip on the edge.

New feed /tooth

A lead angle spreads the same chip over a longer edge, so the feed must rise to keep the chip load. Square shoulder (90°): nothing to reclaim. 45° facing: 1.41×. A 10° high-feed cutter earns 5.76× the catalog feed.

Show the math
new feed = catalog feed ÷ sine of the lead angle

Works in whatever units you type — inches in, inches out; millimetres in, millimetres out. RPM is unit-free. The drawings redraw to scale as you move anything.

Shop trig · right triangle

Type any two, the rest solve themselves — tapers, chamfers, sine bars, edge breaks.

Enter any two — your two newest entries win
a b c θ other

Tool deflection calculator

Long stickout bends. See how much, before the part shows you.

Measure stickout in diameters, not inches. Three diameters out is solid. Six out bends eight times as much. Going up a cutter size helps twice — stiffer tool, and the same reach is fewer diameters. Long flutes bend more than long shank. Estimates assume a solid holder: good for comparing setups, not for certifying a tolerance.

The tool
The cut & the material
Bend at the tip Side force

How much is too much finishing ≤ 0.0002″ · standard ≤ 0.0005″ · roughing ≤ 0.001″
Show the math
bend = side force × stickout³ ÷ (3 × stiffness). The tool is treated as two sections: the shank bends on its own diameter, the fluted part on its smaller core diameter. Side force comes from the workpiece material’s published specific cutting force at your chip thickness.
High-feed milling checklist

Twelve things to set before you run a high-feed toolpath. The path is only as good as the setup around it.

  • Raise the minimum toolpath radius in your CAM (Mastercam: Dynamic Mill / OptiRough “Minimum radius”) — tight internal corners are where high-feed paths spike engagement.
  • Set the micro lift / minimum liftoff to a real value (Mastercam: “Micro lift distance”) so back-passes skim over the floor instead of dragging and re-cutting chips.
  • Turn smoothing on (toolpath smoothing / arc filter tolerance) so the control flows through direction changes instead of hard-stopping mid-move.
  • Add extra material to the stock boundary so the tool arcs in through air and takes a cushioned entry — never slam a full wall on the first move.
  • Use high-pressure or through-tool coolant — at these feeds the chips must leave the zone; if it’s flood or air, air wins.
  • Know the retract behavior before you run it — which moves are full retracts, which are micro lifts, and what the back feed rate is between Z levels.
  • Hold the tool in a Weldon-flat (side-lock) or shrink-fit holder — high-feed cutting pulls tools out of plain collets.
  • Work off part center where you can — bias the approach so the cutter rolls into the cut and the chip starts thin.
  • Shallow depth, heavy feed — trust the pair. Creeping the feed down and the depth up defeats the geometry the cutter was ground for.
  • Run the chip-thinned feed, not the catalog feed — the calculators above give the compensated number for your real stepover and lead angle.
  • Keep gauge length short and check runout — TIR comes straight out of your chip load at high feed.
  • Prove it above the part — backplot, then dry run in single block with rapid override down before cutting metal.
Every tool

The same tools an AI assistant calls — read-only, straight from the database.