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Milling a curved slot


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Hi,

 

I need to mill out a curved slot like this. It's a vertical pipe with a hole drill horizontally and the milled horizontally down and around to the far side.


I can make the nurbs curve, but I can't extrude it so that it can be subtracted from the pipe solid.

 

image.png.9834c0e4f2283cec1e095c1a3b8e5c0d.png

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Nice one VE

 

I can use this for my next development.

 

However, for this one, when you fillet the top, the center of the circle is not the center of the pipe. If I rotate the development to align the center of the circle to the center of the pipe centerline, the side of the circle is not perpendicular to the pipe center plane.

 

image.png.748243f8f8c47ea2288d96b9ccbe0aa6.png

 

If I rotate the development, the left side is not perpendicular to the centerline plane.

 

Therefore, I ended up working from basics.

 

I drew a circle on the centerline in the front view and extruded it. If I subtract solids at this point, I will have a hole in the wall.

 

But before subtracting surfaces, I duplicated it, rotated it, and moved it downward - 200 times in a 180° sweep.

 

Painful if I did this manually, so I made a macro. Not fancy, but cheap.

 

procedure Fetch;

var
i : integer;
pX, pY, D, R : real;
h : handle;

begin
pX := -1228.91; pY := 103.72; { Top view pipe centerline }
R := 0.9; { Rotation angle }
D := -0.0575; { Drop distance }

for i := 1 to 200 do
	begin
	h := LSActLayer;
	Duplicate (0, 0);
	RotatePoint (pX, pY, R);
	h := LSActLayer;
	Move3DObj (h, 0, 0, D);
	end;
end;
run (Fetch);

 

I then added the solids.

 

Duplicating this solid, rotating it 180° and then subtracting the two solids from the tube gave the result I needed.

 

image.thumb.png.c6a06a121613f515479547b7da50ecbc.png

 

Thanks for showing me some new methods of creating objects using tools that I wouldn't have thought of.

 

It was a very challenging model.

  • Like 2
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Great stuff, glad you worked it out.  I think I understand now what you wanted.  I should have thought of that before, in another life I worked in fabrication.  

 

I redid this just for posterity, but in this video I included the cutting tool shape.  If this is correct there is a simple way to create the correct curve pattern.

 

But as you have what you want and know how to do it, stick with that.

 

regards...

 

 

  • Like 1
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As I understand it, WhoCanDo wanted curves that looked like image 1, where sweep as I did it or my original method produced curves that look like image 2.

 

In image 1, the red line in perpendicular to the last tangent.  

 

Image 1 would be the natural cut of the CNC tool.......I think. 

 

Screenshot2025-01-19at1_06_34PM.png.9697487ad932c190804e703049d4c571.png

 

Screenshot2025-01-19at1_05_59PM.png.3ce2fa4cc297c5a352742038019fe3ac.png

Edited by VIRTUALENVIRONS
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I'm seeing a lot of good ideas coming through here.

 

I started with the sweep but failed. That doesn't mean that I got the setup right though LOL.

 

Just to confirm. The split-pin that is protruding, is press fitted into the bolt. A compression spring is extending from the top of the bolt (not shown).

 

When the bolt is turned 180°+, the split-pin is to slide along the horizontally cut solid subtraction so that the spring is tightened by half a turn.

 

That is why it is so important that the sides of the slot are all horizontal as it goes.

 

Even though I have a solution, I'm going to have a go at some of the ideas above so I can experience the tools and methods.

 

image.png.079a7415228c4cf88be132c19640a152.png

  • Like 3
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