Free for makers · no account · no install

From "which bit?"
to perfect cut.

A CNC feeds & speeds calculator built for hobbyist machines — not the industrial numbers that stall your spindle.

Most calculators are calibrated for production shops. ToolPath Advisor is calibrated for the machines hobbyists actually own: MPCNC, LowRider, Shapeoko, X-Carve, Onefinity, and the Makera line — Carvera, Carvera Air, Z1, and Z1 Pro. Pick your machine, pick your material, get honest numbers — with a chip-load gauge that goes red before you blow an end mill, not after.

And when your bit or material isn't on any chart — a 4-flute cutter facing steel, an O-flute in brass — the new Cut Lab works it out from the physics. Free. Runs in your browser. No account required.

9
tools · workflow + reference
43
materials · tonewoods to titanium
9
machine profiles + custom
$0
always free
Getting started

Three steps.
One good cut.

New to the tool? Here's the workflow most people settle into after the first session.

01

Tell it about
your shop

A quick setup wizard asks four things once — your machine, spindle, CAM software, and controller. Tap a card and it moves on; steps with only one answer skip themselves. Your profile saves to the browser, so next time you go straight to work. Wrong machine profile means wrong numbers throughout, so this step matters.

02

Dial in feeds
& speeds

In Feeds & Speeds, pick your material, operation, and bit. Watch the chip-load gauge — green means you're in range, red means back off before you break something. Tuning sliders push toward finish, speed, or tool life. Bit or material off the chart? One click opens the cut in Cut Lab.

03

Take it to
the machine

Print a Setup Sheet, or use Copy for CAM to paste straight into Fusion 360, VCarve, Carbide Create, Easel, or Makera Studio. Run the Pre-Flight checklist before you cut, and save the job to your Cut Library so you're not starting from scratch next time.

Workflow · the five you use in order
Cut Lab NEW
Model any bit in any material, even cuts no chart covers. It charts your spindle's real power across its RPM range, checks surface speed, chip thinning, and deflection, then solves for the fastest settings that pass every check — and compares alternative bits side by side.
Tool Recommender
Pick your operation and material — get the right bit geometry and size for the job, with a rationale for why.
Feeds & Speeds
Real-time chip-load gauge, tuning sliders, RPM, feed, depth, and stepover — capped to what your machine can actually do. The heart of the tool.
Setup Sheet
Auto-fills from your settings. Add workholding, stock size, and zero point, then print a card for the wall next to your machine.
Pre-Flight
33 checks in seven sections, adapted to your setup — spindle users see VFD items, router users see speed-dial items. Catches what muscle memory skips.
Reference · the four you look things up in
Learn — 14 Articles
Chip load, climb vs. conventional, deflection, workholding, CNC for luthiers — and a new one on cutting metal on a desktop machine. The theory behind the numbers.
Cut Library
Every cut you save, searchable by material or machine, exportable to CSV. Reload any one in a click. It all stays in your browser — no account, no cloud.
G-Code Reference
95 G- and M-codes, searchable and filtered to your controller — including GRBL $ commands and Marlin codes.
Materials Library
43 materials — exotic tonewoods, SpectraPly, plastics, composites, and now metals from aluminum to titanium. Hardness, density, dust hazards, and cutting notes for each.
Why I built this

Built for my shop.
Free for yours.

Every CNC feeds & speeds calculator I found was built for industrial spindles and production chip loads. They'd output numbers that would stall my MPCNC in ten seconds flat.

I've been making things for fifty years — cabinet work, architectural millwork, furniture, guitars. I know what a bad cut sounds like before the bit breaks. What I didn't have was a tool that translated that feel into numbers a CNC controller would actually respect.

So I built it. Machine profiles calibrated to real hobbyist hardware. Feed caps that respect what an MPCNC frame can do. Material data tuned for tonewoods, not just 2×4s.

Then I started running a Makera Z1 every day — with bits and materials no preset covers, right down to facing steel. That's where the Cut Lab came from. It's free because I know how to build it and I know what it costs to run. If it saves one end mill or one guitar blank, it was worth putting out.

50 years at the bench
Cabinet · Millwork · Guitars
40 years in software
No lock-in · no subscription
MPCNC + linear rails
35 ipm cap · verified in-shop
Makera Z1 daily driver
Firmware feed caps built in
Tonewoods included
Cocobolo · rosewood · ebony
Metals & composites
Aluminum · brass · steel · Ti
SpectraPly & plastics
HD plastics · PVC · Phenolic
Runs client-side
Nothing leaves your browser
Supported machines

Calibrated for
your hardware.

The tool has profiles for the machines hobbyists actually own. Each profile sets feed caps, RPM ranges, and chip-load targets to what that specific machine can realistically do — not what a Haas can do.

MPCNC · LowRider
V1 Engineering's two builds, profiled separately. MPCNC gets a hard 35 ipm cap per V1's spec. LowRider starts at a conservative 80 ipm you can push past with the sliders once your test cuts say it's fine.
Shapeoko · X-Carve · Onefinity
Individual profiles per machine. Onefinity gets more aggressive targets for its stiffer frame; X-Carve gets conservative DOC limits.
Makera Carvera · Carvera Air · Z1 · Z1 Pro
Four desktop profiles, each capped at Makera's published max travel speed — 236, 157, 78, and 47 ipm — so you never program a feed the controller will quietly ignore. Copy for CAM speaks Makera Studio.
Generic / Other
Not on the list? Enter your own RPM range, rigidity, and collets and the math adapts.

Recommendations are calibrated starting points — not guarantees. Always run a test cut in scrap before committing to good material. Tramming, bit runout, and workholding matter as much as the numbers.

Questions & feedback

Found a bug?
Tell me.

The tool is actively maintained. If a material profile is wrong for your setup, a machine is missing from the list, or something doesn't behave the way it should — I want to know about it. This is a working shop tool, not abandonware.