Is there another way?

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ozymax
Vectric Craftsman
Posts: 245
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2014 4:34 am
Model of CNC Machine: Home built cnc router using Masso G3.

Is there another way?

Post by ozymax »

I'm working on a project at the moment that requires me to create some wooden gears.
I created all the gear tooth profiles using a gadget, then aligned the centre holes of the gear. To make things easier, I was aligning to the centre of the material.
The issue I had, was that the gear profile vector wouldn't align due to it's asymmetrical shape. (odd number of teeth)
You can see in my screen shot, that all the circles have been aligned to the centre using the align tool and are all concentric, but when I align the gear profile vector it doesn't align correctly.
Test.jpg
How I rectified this, was to copy the gear vector to another layer. Then I drew another circle that was larger than the gear but used the snapped centre point of the gear. I then grouped both vectors and aligned them to the centre of my job.
Then I copied the gear vector back to the original layer.

Whilst this process worked for me, I was wondering if there was a way of telling Aspire to use the centre point of a vector to align an object and save all this extra work.
I have other larger gears to cut out, so I went and checked those for concentricity. Both of those were also ever so slightly out. It was only due to the smaller gear being out, that I picked this up.
I'm currently using Aspire 8.
I've seen on so many occasions on the forum, that there are several ways to skin that pesky cat, so to speak.

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FixitMike
Vectric Wizard
Posts: 2173
Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:21 am
Model of CNC Machine: Shark Pro Plus (retired)
Location: Burien, WA USA

Re: Is there another way?

Post by FixitMike »

Draw a larger circle around the gear that is centered on it. Select both the circle and the gear and center both to the material. You can use the Move Selection Tool, or the Alignment Tool to center them..
Good judgement comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgement.

ozymax
Vectric Craftsman
Posts: 245
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2014 4:34 am
Model of CNC Machine: Home built cnc router using Masso G3.

Re: Is there another way?

Post by ozymax »

Thanks Mike.
Looks like the way I did it was correct, but long winded.
Got there in the end though.

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