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Groove with increasing depth - need HELP!

Groove with increasing depth - need HELP!

Groove with increasing depth - need HELP!

(OP)
Hi!

I'm trying (but fails) to model a groove with an increasing depth, wrapped 1/4 revolutions around a cylinder.

It is machined this way in our workshop:

The cylinder is rotated, while a ball nose cutting tool, which axis is always normal to the original cylinder face, is pushed closer to the centre of the cylinder with a rate of 0,022mm for every degree increment.

I think I will get the correct groove if I sweep-cut a sphere along a spline, but as far as I know that's not possible in SolidWorks.

Does anybody know another way to do this?

RE: Groove with increasing depth - need HELP!

Sweep the cross sectional shape of a ball end cutter along a helix, then revolve cut the ends.

RE: Groove with increasing depth - need HELP!

hishairness,

Do a search for "CAM" on this forum and you'll find a couple of threads.

This one has a solution to the walls:
thread559-138062

-b

RE: Groove with increasing depth - need HELP!

That would be a spiral.  Create a spiral that matches the groove bottom.  Cut the groove using a sweep.  Use a concentric arc for the path curve.  Use the spiral for a guide curve.  Be sure the section is constrained to the guide curve and path curve using pierce constraints.

I could be the world's greatest underachiever, if I could just learn to apply myself.
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com-SolidWorks API VB programming help

RE: Groove with increasing depth - need HELP!

Hi All,

Some good ideas here, but to be exact I think that you must:
1) Create a spiral that represents centerline path of the ball nose sphere center.
2) Create a reference plane normal to this spiral curve.
3) Sketch your cutter diameter on this plane.
4) Cut Sweep with the "follow path" option (no guide curves required).
5) Then cut revolve to create the start and end features. Done.

I believe that dezignstuff had the right idea, just substitute "spiral" for "helix".

TheTick introduces a small error by using the groove bottom instead of the cutter center.  This error becomes most obvious at steep spiral angles.

I should note that my method is exact for spirals, but not for helixes. The difficultly for helixes is that there is no simple planar profile that can be swept because the helix angle changes along the cutter nose.

Please share if anyone has a better idea.

ERT
http://www.akeng.com
   



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