The Shop > Tools
Alexander Engraver to CNC Miller Conversion
Rob.Wilson:
Hi Phil
Well there you go ,,,,,,,, i would buy the software ,, make three sets and sell one set on Ebay to cover the material costs :thumbup:
Are you going for cast iron for the wheels?
Interesting project ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, i hope we will be seeing a few photos of the Lion build :poke: :)
Rob
John Stevenson:
Phil,
We used to cut loco wheels at the shows till I got fed up with doing them. I'm the only bloke with a 2 - 345 -2 loco :lol:
They were programmed in Cut2D or VCarve Pro, can't remember but both can do the same job.
We have three on a demo board because everyone says you can see the tool marks, ? 'Cause you can they are cut by a tool ? Ijit's
So we have 3, one as cut, one been sand blasted and one sandblasted and hot blacked.
The sand blasted ones look just like castings and rumour has it Rob Wilson had an orgasm over the black one. :poke:
philf:
--- Quote from: John Stevenson on March 26, 2012, 07:35:29 PM ---Phil,
We used to cut loco wheels at the shows till I got fed up with doing them. I'm the only bloke with a 2 - 345 -2 loco :lol:
They were programmed in Cut2D or VCarve Pro, can't remember but both can do the same job.
We have three on a demo board because everyone says you can see the tool marks, ? 'Cause you can they are cut by a tool ? Ijit's
So we have 3, one as cut, one been sand blasted and one sandblasted and hot blacked.
The sand blasted ones look just like castings and rumour has it Rob Wilson had an orgasm over the black one. :poke:
--- End quote ---
Hi John,
I've seen one of your wheels being cut at Harrogate. I hoped that cutting them with a ball ended cutter with the code generated from a 3d CAM package with fillets on the spokes would make them look fairly realistic.
I'd like to cut one just to see how practical it is and what the finished wheel looks like. And how long it would take!
I thought of cutting it in 2 1/2d and then turning the taper to the spokes in the lathe (or even turning them in the miller) but then I'm still stuck with sharp cornered spokes - nothing like the original.
I know someone with VCarve Pro - I'll see if he can generate some code for me.
I know it would be much easier to buy the castings but I'd rather spend the money on other things.
:beer:
Phil.
John Stevenson:
Phil,
Don't bother with VCarve pro code, it's the same as Cut2D, to go full 3D you need either Aspire [ spendy] or Cut3D.
I did a flywheel as a test to see how fast I could get from thought thru drawing to CAM and then cut it [ 47 minutes but I had to do the design twice as I programmed up for a size of bar I didn't have :( ]
I used a corner rounding cutter just to trim it up.
Ignore the hole in the middle it was already in the blank.
Now if you milled the bulk of the wheel out, did a goround with a tapered cutter then a rounding cutter you would have the same as a 3D generated one in less time.
3D programs are looooooooooooong.
philf:
--- Quote from: John Stevenson on March 27, 2012, 04:58:56 AM ---Phil,
Don't bother with VCarve pro code, it's the same as Cut2D, to go full 3D you need either Aspire [ spendy] or Cut3D.
I did a flywheel as a test to see how fast I could get from thought thru drawing to CAM and then cut it [ 47 minutes but I had to do the design twice as I programmed up for a size of bar I didn't have :( ]
I used a corner rounding cutter just to trim it up.
Ignore the hole in the middle it was already in the blank.
Now if you milled the bulk of the wheel out, did a goround with a tapered cutter then a rounding cutter you would have the same as a 3D generated one in less time.
3D programs are looooooooooooong.
--- End quote ---
Thanks for that John,
Aspire is well beyond my pocket. I'll have to save up for Cut3d methinks. Have you tried any other affordable 3d CAM packages?
I modelled the wheel in ViaCad which is a: very affordable and b: very easy to use - did you ever get to try it? A pity they don't do a matching CAM package.
I'd wondered about going round the spokes with a rounding cutter but I could only do that in 2d and all the cutters I have are too big to get anywhere near the corners where the spoke meets the rim.
When I've finished my painting duties (front door has been bare wood for years and I need to earn some Brownie points) I'll have a go to see how near I can get in 2d.
Cheers.
Phil.
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