CNC turning material guide
Every setting that lives on a CNC turning material, and where each number comes from - usually a supplier's data sheet or an invoice.
A material is something you buy, so most of these numbers are on an invoice or a data sheet rather than in your head. Price and density are the two that matter most; get those right and everything else is a refinement.
Materials live in the Library too, so a price change is one edit even if five configurations use it.
Every setting on this page
These are in the same order as the editor, with the same help text. Each one has an anchor, and the ? beside a field in your console links straight to it - so if you are reading this because you clicked one, the setting you were looking at is highlighted.
Material: machinability
Machinability groupgroupbasic
The family the material belongs to for cutting.
Price: Decides which machines may cut it. The rates below are what change the price.
Typical: Aluminium for 6061 / 6082 / 7075.
Roughing rateroughing_mrr_cm3_minbasiccalibratable
Material removed per minute when roughing on a reference vertical machining centre.
Price: The largest time driver on a part cut from a block: half the rate, twice the roughing time.
Typical: aluminium 50-80 · steel 15-25 · stainless 8-12 · titanium 4-6 · plastics 60-100.
This is one of the numbers the calibration tool can fit from jobs you have already run, so you do not have to guess it.
Finishing ratefinishing_rate_cm2_minbasiccalibratable
Machined surface finished per minute at the standard tolerance and finish.
Price: Scales finishing time over the whole surface; tolerance and finish factors multiply it.
Typical: aluminium 20-30 · steel 10-15 · stainless 6-10 · titanium 4-6.
This is one of the numbers the calibration tool can fit from jobs you have already run, so you do not have to guess it.
Drilling feeddrill_feed_mm_min
How fast a drill goes into this material.
Price: Drilling time per hole is its depth over this feed.
Typical: aluminium 300-500 · steel 120-200 · stainless 60-100.
Tapping per threadtap_s_per_thread
Tapping or thread-cutting one thread, tool approach included.
Price: Multiplied by the buyer's thread count.
Typical: aluminium 8-12 s · steel 15-25 s.
Tool weartool_wear_factor
How fast this material wears tools, relative to aluminium (1.0).
Price: Cutting hours times this factor are reported as the tool-wear consumable, priced per hour in your consumables list.
Typical: aluminium 1 · steel 2 · stainless 3 · titanium 5 · plastics 0.5.
Swarf creditswarf_credit_pct
The share of the removed material's value you get back selling the chips.
Price: Lowers the material line: the removed stock is charged less this share.
Typical: aluminium 10-20 % · brass 40-60 % · copper 50-70 % · plastics 0 %.
Minimum wallmin_wall_mm
The thinnest wall that machines without chatter or distortion.
Price: No direct price effect: it is the threshold for the thin-wall and thin-tube warnings.
Typical: 0.8 mm metals · 1.5 mm plastics.