Several years ago, I stumbled upon a piece of software that I have found to be invaluable over the years. The best part is that it is free, is still available, and runs on either Linux or Windows, all versions up to Windows 10. I will bet that it will run on Windows 11 as well, but I have not had the chance to test it. Sadly, there is not a version available for Mac.
The software was written by Richard Sanders from British Columbia and will run either metric or imperial measure and can be set to use English, Spanish, or Dutch languages.
I don't want to go over the top on this, but it is a REALLY useful program, and I enjoy using it immensely! It seems to be more useful during engineering and design of a project rather than during actual machining. Here are all the things it can do:
* Calculate Arc, Chord, and Sectors
* Calculate lengths and angles for right triangles and acute triangles.
* Calculate dovetail dimensions and reverse engineer existing dovetails.
* Plot X-Y coordinates for any bolt circle.
* Do all the calculations for three-wire measurement of threads.
* Dividing head calculations. Plug in the number from your indexing plates and it will calculate from there.
* Calculates tap drill sizes based on percentage of thread contact you want.
* Calculates sizes and angles of regular polygons.
* Calculates everything for spur, bevel, and worm gears.
* Does gear calculations based on measurements over pins
* Calculates gear train ratios even on compound gear trains.
* Does all sorts of angle conversions, as well as many conversions between metric and imperial for lengths and temperatures.
The only thing that it does not calculate is feeds and speeds, which really surprises me.
You can download it absolutely free, no registration required or anything, at this web address: http://www.hogervorst.tech/gerard/engels/program-01.html (http://www.hogervorst.tech/gerard/engels/program-01.html)
If you are looking for some other calculators, you can find an entire list of them at the CNC Cookbook website: https://www.cnccookbook.com/handy-calculators-reference-charts-cnc-machinists-free/ (https://www.cnccookbook.com/handy-calculators-reference-charts-cnc-machinists-free/)
Thought some of you might find this useful.
Test thread to see if we can properly attach a spreadsheet to a post. It sticks in my mind that it creates a problem.
Well it seems to attach just fine but you must download the file to read it. We could run into problems if multiple people download the file, edit it, then upload it again.
Gotta come up with a better idea.
More research shows that Richard Sanders, the author of this tool, no longer has a website up with this tool available. The only place it is available is on a site owned by the Dutch translator.
I think I am going to go out on a limb here and post it in our downloads section. Members can access it and download it. It appears that copyright will not be an issue as long as our copy is not modified from the original posted by Richard.
I decided to email the man who does have the tool available for download to at least get somebody's blessing before I post it. The wait begins.
I have been in contact with Gerard Emonds, the current holder of ShopCalc. He informed me that Richard Sanders, the original author of ShopCalc, passed away about ten years ago. Gerard has become a member here so that he can have a look around. I will let you all know more as this moves forward. If you see a post from Gerard, please extend a warm welcome to our friend from the Netherlands.