Tutorial please?

[Mogal]

I "think" this would be a relatively easy thing to do, but I just can't get my head wrapped around this yet.
I modeled it up in minutes in ViaCAD, but can not get the tool paths figured out.

Would anyone mind doing a little tutorial? or point me in the right direction with this.
Thanks

I would like to make four of these and use them as 'feet' on a small cabinet.
(They are 2 x 2 inches)

feet.crv3d

(25.5 KiB) Downloaded 203 times

[dealguy11]

Here's how to do this. Note I created the vectors from scratch and approximated the shape. You can use your own vectors as necessary:

1. Set up your job

2. Set up your vectors:

3. Create a 2-rail sweep for the wings:

4. Create the center block:

5. Move the wing sweep in place, copy it, rotate it and move it to the other side of the block:

6. Node edit the larger circle to add nodes to each of the 45-degree positions. Make the bottom left 45-degree point the start point. Check to see if the square for the block has the start point set to the bottom left and change it if not:

[dealguy11]

7. Use the square for the block and the circle as the rails for a 2-rail sweep. Make sure they're going the same direction. Use the little angle as the sweep vector. Make sure "Scale cross sections with width" is turned off. After you select the sweep vector, click on each corner of the square to connect it with the corners of the circle, to make sure the corners break properly:

8. Use the 2 circles to create cylinders using the "Create shape from vectors" tool. I made them full height and used "Merge" for the combine mode to avoid issues with where the components intersect. If all the combine modes are correct, this is what you get:

I leave it to you to figure out how to drill the holes

[Mogal]

Thank you!
That's awesome DG!

It took me about 10 minutes to follow your directions and I had it!

Thanks!
Chris

[dealguy11]

Cool! One last piece of advice. The verticals on this will not carve well and should be cut with end mills as 2d profile paths if possible. Use boundary vectors to keep the carving tool in the areas that require carving. Another possibility is to add draft to the model to get rid of the verticals, but that will make the foot bigger in x and y.

[Mogal]

Update:

Yes, I did just that, created a boundary around the model, and did a profile cutout out.
These turned out great!

Thanks again!
Chris

P.S. I'll be drilling the holes out tomorrow at work

[Phil]

Excellent tutorial, Dealguy. We have wonderful people helping out on this forum.

[sawmiller]

thanks, deal guy