I received one of the Speed/Feed calculators today. I think it is priced fairly. It is well made, it is plastic covered so it should remain usable in the shop environment. It appears to offer all of the data that a machinist would use including data for lots of materials and hardnesses. A calculator like this is so much easier to use than punching the numbers out on a calculator. It's certainly quicker to use this without fooling around with the equations, and it ought to be more accurate than entering the wrong numbers or using the wrong equations in the electronic calculator.
In my basement shop, I use a chart on the wall that was copied from ??? years ago to set RPM. I've calculated chip load occasionally but it's generally too much trouble so I just don't do it and 'wing it' based on my (limited) experience/judgement. I think that I will use the slider for the feed and speed settings. As Bruno and Dave mentioned, there is a lot more information available with this calculator than I will ever use.
I'm a retired engineer who decided to build a hobby machine shop after retirement and who has very little practical experience in machining beyond what I've learned during the past few years. It appears that the slide calculator will be useful to me.
Roger
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