Two rail sweep?

[jim shula]

I'm trying to make a prototype medallion for a decoupage artist. The shape is a 12" diameter circle with a complex type moulding routed into the outer 3", and the inner 9" circle will be left flat for the decoupage.

There are several sources for section drawings of complex mouldings in some of my carpentry books. If I scan a cross section (view of the end grain), import the scan into aspire and trace the bitmap to create a vector of the shape, is it possible to create a circular model of this shape using the two rail sweep function in Aspire? That would sure save me a lot of time.

[ssflyer]

Sounds similar to a custom piece I did recently. That's exactly how I did it - scanned cross section and finished with a 2-rail sweep.

[woodshopcnc]

I do not use aspire but it is similar to artcam (I think).

To make your part. Draw a 12" circle and a 9" circle and center them on each other. Draw your profile from the scan (is should be 1 1/2" wide). Click two rail sweep and select the top rail (12" circle) and bottom rail (9" circle), thien add cross section (or whatever aspire calls it) to sweep along those rails. With only one cross section selected, it should sweep in the circle. If the profile comes out reversed, select the top and bottom in different order or reverse the vector on the cross section. Your software might have a "spin" command which is perfect for these, select profile and spin it, if the profile is 1 1/2" wide, add 4 1/2" flat line to the inside and spin from the end of the flat line, giving you the actual 12" dia with a 9" inside flat.

Hope this makes sense

[jim shula]

Thanks for the quick replies. This forum is great. I'll spend some time on it tonight and see if I can get it. I'm still using Aspire 2.5 so I hope that doesn't prevent me from doing this.

[bcondon]

I studied the F31 plans for a couple of years and then the market tanked... SO much for dreams! Do you still have it?

Bob Condon