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, Shapeoko, X-Carve, Onefinity, and Carvera. 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. Free. Runs in your browser. No account required.

8
tabs · one workflow
13
material categories
5
machine profiles
$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

Set your machine
& material

Start in Tool Recommender. Select your machine — MPCNC, Shapeoko, X-Carve, Onefinity, or Carvera — then pick your material. The app immediately adjusts its recommendations to your machine's real-world limits. This step matters: wrong machine profile means wrong numbers throughout.

02

Dial in feeds
& speeds

Jump to Feeds & Speeds. Enter your bit diameter, flute count, and cut depth. Watch the chip-load gauge — green means you're in range, red means back off before you break something. Use the tuning sliders to push toward better finish, higher feed rate, or longer tool life depending on what the job needs.

03

Generate your
setup sheet

Hit Setup Sheet for a printable one-pager with all your parameters — or use Copy to CAM to paste directly into Fusion 360, Carbide Create, or VCarve. Run Pre-Flight Checklist before you cut. Save the job in Job History so you're not starting from scratch next time.

All 8 tabs
Tool Recommender
Pick your machine and material — get the right bit geometry and size for the job, with a rationale for why.
Feeds & Speeds Calculator
Real-time chip-load gauge, tuning sliders, RPM and feed rate output. The heart of the tool.
Setup Sheet
Printable one-page cut summary. Everything you need at the machine without digging through tabs mid-job.
Pre-Flight Checklist
Step-through safety and setup checks before every cut. Catches the things muscle memory lets you skip.
Learn — 13 Articles
Chip load, depth of cut, feeds vs. speeds, tramming, runout, workholding. The theory behind the numbers.
G-Code Reference
The codes you actually need at the machine — quick-reference format, not a textbook.
Materials Library
13 categories including exotic tonewoods, SpectraPly, HD plastics, and aluminum. Cutting notes per material.
Job History
Save, search, and reload any job. Your settings stay in the browser — no account, no sync, no cloud.
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. 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
Tonewoods included
Cocobolo · rosewood · ebony
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
35 ipm feed cap per V1 Engineering spec. Standard and upgraded linear-rail profiles. ER11 collet, VFD spindle up to 24,000 RPM.
Shapeoko · X-Carve · Onefinity
Individual profiles per machine. Onefinity gets more aggressive targets for its stiffer frame; X-Carve gets conservative DOC limits.
Carvera · Custom
Carvera desktop ATC profile included. Custom entry lets you set your own RPM range and feed cap for any machine not in the list.

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.