wrapped pockets

[Norb]

Using the Wrapping feature in Aspire is basically for artistic/architectural projects ... or so I thought until today.

I have done projects on my little Sherline mill with 4th axis and those were generally from 3D files which, of course, were very time consuming as they machined through 360 degrees.

Until today, I did not know that I could do a cylindrical, mechanical part with the wrapper, directly in Aspire....and fast too.

The image shows 4 helical slots with 2 side recesses in the middle. They serve no purpose other than to see how to handle the area where the two opposite ends of the Y axis meet.

All 4 grooves are basically 4 pockets machined with an offset strategy.

By the way, with the Sherline mill I use the 'Mach 2/3 wrap Y2A mm' post and I don't need to disconnect the Y (or X) and connect the cable to the A.

I am pleasantly surprised by the ease of doing this and if only one could temporarily deactivate the 'wrapper' to do some 'flat' areas (like for example the 6 sides of a hex bolt head) then go back to wrapping - all combined in 1 tool path - man, that would be really cool!

[Leo]

This is a really cool post. I am also very interested in going beyond just wrapping. Even to be able to do indexing and 4 or 6 or 8 sided work will be cool.

I think combining some g-code with some cam will get the job done.

[Norb]

I am sure Pratt & Whitney won't place an order for this kind of turbine-looking thing but I think I will do one over the weekend just for fun.

The vanes need to be relatively fat because the (plastic) material I have is somewhat brittle.

It may look like it but there are no undercuts.

[Norb]

While interesting to do, the result is not really of practical use. It's good to experiment, though.

What I failed to visualize is the fact that with a basically 2D design on a rotary axis, the deeper you machine the narrower/thinner the root of the blades become. Because of the curvature of each blade, the toolpath preview did not make that fact obvious and I my enthusiasm to get this thing done I didn't notice it.

About halfway through the machining I had to stop or else the blades would have tapered down to nothing at the root. So 3D files are necessary for projects like that unless you machine only a fraction of diameter the workpiece.

Anyway, it was still fun