Aspire Rotary Small Long Shapes Help

Topics related to wrapped rotary machining in Aspire or VCarve Pro
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JollieJack
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Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:47 pm
Model of CNC Machine: CaMaster Stinger & CaMaster Panther 408

Aspire Rotary Small Long Shapes Help

Post by JollieJack »

Hello Everyone,

I’m trying to draw small shapes like houses, barns, tractors, for the rotary that I can then take over to the band saw and cut into 1/4” thick slices and wind up with 1,000 pieces. They wouldn’t be real small like about 4” or 5” stock by about 3ft long.

My problem is learning how to draw the shapes in Aspires rotary setup and toolpaths. I’ve watched the rotary training videos on the Vectric website and a bunch on YouTube. I just can’t seem to apply what I’ve watched to what I need.

Mostly I’ve been trying the 2 rail sweeps with the drive rails on the left and right, top and bottom, wrapped and unwrapped. Nothing works for me.

I’m getting good at putting a house on the side of the wood like a rolling pin but I need the shape of the house on the end not on the side so I can take it over on the band saw and slice it up.

We have 2 CAMaster machines, the one we will be running these on is the Panther PT-408 and using Aspire 10.5. Would version 11 of Aspire make a difference for these?

I’ve attached 3 pictures that I drew in CorelDraw to show you what I’m trying to accomplish. Can anyone point me in a direction I can try in Aspire or a video I can watch that would show me how to draw these shapes?

I can draw averagely good in Aspire but this rotary stuff is all new to me. :roll:

Thank you in advance, any help is very much appreciated.
Jack,
Attachments
Barn1.jpg
DoubleHearts1.jpg
Tractor1.jpg

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Rcnewcomb
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Re: Aspire Rotary Small Long Shapes Help

Post by Rcnewcomb »

For those designs the "Unwrap Selected Objects" a.k.a. the Vector Unwrapper on the Drawing tab under Transform Objects will be your friend.

The unwrapped vector can then be swept across the rotary profile to produce the shape. After it is machined you can slice it on a bandsaw.
Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 10.13.27 AM.png
Simple example:
Create a new rotary project
Create a star slightly smaller than the diameter of the blank.
With the star selected use the Unwrap Selected Objects tool to create an unwrapped vector
Do a 2 rail sweep: Use the vectors in the "2Rail Sweep Rails" lay that were automatically created when you set up a rotary job, and the unwrapped vector as the cross section
Look at it in the 3D view
- Randall Newcomb
10 fingers in, 10 fingers out, another good day in the shop

JollieJack
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:47 pm
Model of CNC Machine: CaMaster Stinger & CaMaster Panther 408

Re: Aspire Rotary Small Long Shapes Help

Post by JollieJack »

Thank you Randall!

I will try that just as fast as I can get to the computer on Aspire LOL. It might be a couple hours but it will be ASAP. After a week of being beat up you've given me new life. :D

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Rcnewcomb
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Re: Aspire Rotary Small Long Shapes Help

Post by Rcnewcomb »

Here is an example in V10.5
Attachments
RotaryStarExtrudeExample.crv3d
(1.17 MiB) Downloaded 74 times
RotaryStarExtrudeExample.JPG
- Randall Newcomb
10 fingers in, 10 fingers out, another good day in the shop

JollieJack
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:47 pm
Model of CNC Machine: CaMaster Stinger & CaMaster Panther 408

Re: Aspire Rotary Small Long Shapes Help

Post by JollieJack »

OMG I got it! Thank you so so much!!! I just drew my barn 4" by 4' and it looks wonderful. You have no idea how happy I am right now LOL! I uploaded a few more pics to show you. As you see it did the barn and star very nice it also did a double heart we needed.

I did have a problem doing a tractor but I'll keep working with it and see if I can figure it out. It broke it all apart into different pieces like it was to complex to unwrap, I'm sure that is the problem. I'm using the tractor our client use to get from their previous supplier and I'll simplify this one so it unwraps better. I just don't want it to get to simple, I wouldn't want ours to be uglier than the ones they use to get. I want ours to be nicer if you know what I mean.

Thank you again Randall!!!
Attachments
Star2RailSweep.jpg
Barn2RailSweep.jpg
Tractor2RailSweep.jpg

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Rcnewcomb
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Re: Aspire Rotary Small Long Shapes Help

Post by Rcnewcomb »

The unwrapper added some vectors that aren't needed for the tractor. I used a boolean to get rid of the extraneous vectors along with a bit of node editing.

This is my quick and dirty attempt.
Attachments
TractorPreview.JPG
Tractor.crv3d
(1.14 MiB) Downloaded 73 times
- Randall Newcomb
10 fingers in, 10 fingers out, another good day in the shop

JollieJack
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:47 pm
Model of CNC Machine: CaMaster Stinger & CaMaster Panther 408

Re: Aspire Rotary Small Long Shapes Help

Post by JollieJack »

Hello Randall!

A couple days ago I drew another tractor just to simplify it to see if that would help with my issues. I kept welding the parts together and I kept getting close but nothing was working.

After reading your post this morning I tried the subtracting method under the edit objects category to get rid of the extra items and this is what came of it. I did some node editing and it needs a little more but it's close to what I drew.

I'd like to try the boolean and see how the tractor looks. For right now I'm being summoned to go run some Sunday errands but shouldn't be gone to long.

Thanks again, much appreciated!
Attachments
Tractor2RailSweep-2.jpg

JollieJack
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:47 pm
Model of CNC Machine: CaMaster Stinger & CaMaster Panther 408

Re: Aspire Rotary Small Long Shapes Help

Post by JollieJack »

Hello,

I spent a few hours on it yesterday and a couple this morning and I think I will stay where I'm at (maybe). I kept trying to create a better smoke stack and I did but I just kept going in circles on the front bumper.

On the bottom of the front bumper it has that undercut and drawing that square undercut is where I get stuck. Seems like no matter what I try it defaults to an angle on the bottom of the bumper.

I uploaded 2 images. One with a straight bumper on the bottom I will live with. The other image is the angled bottom I can't get rid of when I try drawing the cutout on the bottom. You can see my tractor I've redrawn on the bottom left and you can also see where I marked the front bumper on the unwrapped side.
Attachments
Tractor2RailSweep-5.jpg
Tractor2RailSweep-4.jpg

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