Not worthy of show and tell

[myxpykalix]

just some templates for turning a a round top newel post into various "rose petal" designs using the Legacy Ornamental Mill

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[scottcox]

Jack,

Do you have a 3D cad program that's capable of exporting a 3ds file? If so, you could do every one of those on your indexer.

Measure the circumfrence (which equals maxY, which equals 360 degrees). Create a profile of the circumfrence, but lay it out flat. For a 6" round blank, the circumfrence would be 18.85".


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Next, drop down and create the 2d profile of the "material", making it's height exactly half the diameter of your round workpiece (let's say 3" for a 6" diameter piece). Once you have this 2d profile, you can give it a z value (let's say 36 inches).


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Now you have a solid that can be exported to Cut3D or even Millwizard. Toolpath it without a margin so your bit doesn't drop over the edges.

Once you have the toolpaths, you can convert the M3 files to M5 files by...

1) Changing the M3s to M5s
2) Setting the Y values to zero.
3) Using the old Y values as the new B values (B = Old Y * (360/18.85) Remember the 18.85 is MaxY.

It has to be in the format of M5,x,y,z,a,b . The A axis is usually used for a second z, so it is also just set to all zeroes.

You can use MS Access, MS Excel or many other programs to do the parsing. And I'm almost positive that Bill Young wrote a converter for this, but I can't find it. Anyone?

[myxpykalix]

Scott,
I was with you till you said "Once you have this 2d profile, you can give it a z value (let's say 36 inches)"

I don't know how/why I would program a 36" Z height? Unless i misunderstand?
I think "I get" the rest of the explaination although i still don't know how to fully use excel.
It is easier to make them on the indexer but one reason i wanted to make these was I have other frinds who own the Legacy and not a shopbot so everything is a manual operation for them. We are trying to emulate (sort of) this type of thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PHrgVhpDUQ

[scottcox]

Jack,

The 36 inch Z is just for creating the shape. It will become the 36 inch X in MillWizard or Cut3D.


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[myxpykalix]

Scott,
As i say, i didn't "get" that part. Now i do. Funny how that old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" seems to be so true huh? thanks