Another piece for which there'll be a tutorial coming. 
A Flame Finial
- Thread starter Dave Richards
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By the way great looking Finial....on an actual piece where two might be used it would look great to reverse the twist for opposite side if your using two on the same piece of furniture.
Someone asked about using a Cam software with the part......The toolpath for a cylindrical 4th axis part is fairly straight forward including the twist....... it will still follow one axis forward and backwards.. up down etc....... even twisted flutes want change the toolpath direction in normal operation. ( If you have fine parts it may take several different step down sizes in bits to allow for fitting in small area's ...... the software for the most part is intelligent enough to know where the bit will and want fit and will continue to do additional cuts and tool changes if that is what you have asked the software to do. ) The toolpathing can be made to follow various curve configurations if your software is capable and provided your machine allows a turning cut operation while following such paths like the curve that shows on the twisted final...... (many of the software programs aren't capable because of the tool strategies that various software offers. )This Twisted Finial is harder to draw than it is to toolpath.
Usually the toolpath travels in one axis forward and backwards along the X or Y axis with the Z height varying on a normal 3 axis machine with an indexer (lathe) being called the 4th axis. Some of the more eloborate Programs offer 5,6,7 axis........ usually beyond most of our reaches.
We use Rhinoceros as our drawing program and Rhinocam, or Madcam, as our Cam packages ..... both programs have 5 axis if your willing to pay for the features (we also have Aspire which will do less complex turnings........ the other two programs work within Rhino and we don't have to leave the program to use them). Pulled a file we had of a simple finial and toolpathed only a portion where it could be seen easily and only used the rough pass. Used a large stepover so that the actual toolpath could be seen for an example. Also show a bedpost with only a small portion toolpathed. (by the way Rhino will read Sketchup Files )
Hope this helps....
Blessings,
Kevin
Someone asked about using a Cam software with the part......The toolpath for a cylindrical 4th axis part is fairly straight forward including the twist....... it will still follow one axis forward and backwards.. up down etc....... even twisted flutes want change the toolpath direction in normal operation. ( If you have fine parts it may take several different step down sizes in bits to allow for fitting in small area's ...... the software for the most part is intelligent enough to know where the bit will and want fit and will continue to do additional cuts and tool changes if that is what you have asked the software to do. ) The toolpathing can be made to follow various curve configurations if your software is capable and provided your machine allows a turning cut operation while following such paths like the curve that shows on the twisted final...... (many of the software programs aren't capable because of the tool strategies that various software offers. )This Twisted Finial is harder to draw than it is to toolpath.
Usually the toolpath travels in one axis forward and backwards along the X or Y axis with the Z height varying on a normal 3 axis machine with an indexer (lathe) being called the 4th axis. Some of the more eloborate Programs offer 5,6,7 axis........ usually beyond most of our reaches.
We use Rhinoceros as our drawing program and Rhinocam, or Madcam, as our Cam packages ..... both programs have 5 axis if your willing to pay for the features (we also have Aspire which will do less complex turnings........ the other two programs work within Rhino and we don't have to leave the program to use them). Pulled a file we had of a simple finial and toolpathed only a portion where it could be seen easily and only used the rough pass. Used a large stepover so that the actual toolpath could be seen for an example. Also show a bedpost with only a small portion toolpathed. (by the way Rhino will read Sketchup Files )
Hope this helps....
Blessings,
Kevin
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Thank you, Kevin.
Making the finial with the reverse twist is a good point. It's trivial in SketchUp once the first one in made.
Making the finial with the reverse twist is a good point. It's trivial in SketchUp once the first one in made.
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