Lofting Letters

[JB7280]

I am making a brand for a friend of mine to do some woodburning.  I'm trying to kind of "loft" these letters, so I don't have to get into too small of an area with a square endmill.  I figure if i can loft, or draft the sides of the letters, I can just surface with a ball mill, and in some areas, I will only need to get just below the surface to make the brand functional.  So , how can I easily loft these edges?  I've tried a few different ways and nothing seems to work.

[Chris In-House Solutions]

Loft requires 2 chains.  One at the bottom and one at the top.  I would offset the 1 chain (top) to be smaller then the bottom chain.  Make sure you select the same start point on both chains otherwise you will get a surprise when it creates the model.  

[JB7280]

On 11/26/2021 at 4:19 PM, Chris In-House Solutions said:

Loft requires 2 chains.  One at the bottom and one at the top.  I would offset the 1 chain (top) to be smaller then the bottom chain.  Make sure you select the same start point on both chains otherwise you will get a surprise when it creates the model.  

I can't test it at the moment, but isn't that going to get weird in the areas like the s's, where the walls get very close to each other?

[htm01]

just use a tapered cutter with a small point

[JB7280]

11 minutes ago, htm01 said:

just use a tapered cutter with a small point

I know there's a handful of other ways I could achieve the same end result.  I just figured it was a good opportunity to learn something new on the software side. 

[Aaron Eberhard]

Any reason not to just use a Solid Extrude with Draft turned on?

Here's three harder letters in the Hartford font:

Notice how the Create Letters will give you a lot of little segments on the S & Q, so use Wireframe > Curves from Spline to combine them all.  For best results, don't select the sharp corners, create two separate splines:

And turn on "sharp corner smoothing" in Spline Curves:

Now just Solids Extrude, and on the Advanced tab, turn on "draft angle" to whatever taper matches your tool:

[#Rekd™]

9 minutes ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

On my way to being a crazy and poor machine shop owner.

Love the signature Aaron!!!!!

[Aaron Eberhard]

23 minutes ago, #Rekd™ said:

Love the signature Aaron!!!!! 

Thanks! 

I'm assuming it's like racing with the old saying, "You know how you make a small fortune in racing?  Start with a large one!"  Well, I'm starting with a small fortune, let's see how it plays out

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

2 hours ago, #Rekd™ said:

Love the signature Aaron!!!!! 

Thanks! 

I'm assuming it's like racing with the old saying, "You know how you make a small fortune in racing?  Start with a large one!"  Well, I'm starting with a small fortune, let's see how it plays out

That's great Aaron,  I think it's a big inspiration that you started your own shop! 

Do you have a website?

[JB7280]

11 hours ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

Any reason not to just use a Solid Extrude with Draft turned on?

Here's three harder letters in the Hartford font:

Notice how the Create Letters will give you a lot of little segments on the S & Q, so use Wireframe > Curves from Spline to combine them all.  For best results, don't select the sharp corners, create two separate splines:

And turn on "sharp corner smoothing" in Spline Curves:

Now just Solids Extrude, and on the Advanced tab, turn on "draft angle" to whatever taper matches your tool:

Yes.... There's a very good reason....I'm inexperienced, and didn't think about it!  As simple as that.  

[Aaron Eberhard]

20 hours ago, [email protected] said:

That's great Aaron,  I think it's a big inspiration that you started your own shop! 

Do you have a website?

Well, I'm not quite foolish enough to start my own shop...  Yet.... I joined up with a local shop (plug:   http://www.metal-ind.com/ ) who works with everyone in the local area, we do all sorts of cool projects.   The idea was to work with them for a year, then buy in.  We'll see how it goes!

12 hours ago, JB7280 said:

Yes.... There's a very good reason....I'm inexperienced, and didn't think about it!  As simple as that.  

That's a great reason

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

20 hours ago, [email protected] said:

That's great Aaron,  I think it's a big inspiration that you started your own shop! 

Do you have a website?

Well, I'm not quite foolish enough to start my own shop...  Yet.... I joined up with a local shop (plug:   http://www.metal-ind.com/ ) who works with everyone in the local area, we do all sorts of cool projects.   The idea was to work with them for a year, then buy in.  We'll see how it goes!

Wow cool, I like the look of the products and work, similar to stuff I have worked on before, you know, in my youth!

The only reason I went solo was so that I could go to the beach and travel the world, like I just did with 1 month in cuba!!

 

I used to be scared I would run out of money and fail etc.. But it's 5 months and still going strong!!

 

I am sure you will be a big success, I mean you have a solid background for sure.

 

Using Mastercam  still Aaron?

12 hours ago, JB7280 said:

Yes.... There's a very good reason....I'm inexperienced, and didn't think about it!  As simple as that.  

It's hard to keep up with all the features, I probably don't know half the features in the software or more....

Here since X2...

[Aaron Eberhard]

3 minutes ago, [email protected] said:

Wow cool, I like the look of the products and work, similar to stuff I have worked on before, you know, in my youth!

The only reason I went solo was so that I could go to the beach and travel the world, like I just did with 1 month in cuba!! 

  

I used to be scared I would run out of money and fail etc.. But it's 5 months and still going strong!!

 

I am sure you will be a big success, I mean you have a solid background for sure.

 

Using Mastercam  still Aaron?

It's hard to keep up with all the features, I probably don't know half the features in the software or more....

Here since X2...

Glad to hear it's still working out for you

My goal is to expand this into 5 axis aerospace work, we have the contacts & customers here to do it, but we need better equipment.  Luckily we can solve that problem with gratuitous application of money!

Yes, we're using 2022 right now.  I did send in a request to join the Beta program, but Jim is on vacation, so it'll be a bit.

I would say that I'm pretty solid in about 50% of the capabilities of the software...  I've been using it since the V9/X timeline, so only a bit longer than you.

[#Rekd™]

12 minutes ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

Yet.... I joined up with a local shop (plug:   http://www.metal-ind.com/ ) who works with everyone in the local area, we do all sorts of cool projects.   The idea was to work with them for a year, then buy in.  We'll see how it goes!

Aaron, Looking at the website and noticed the general component repair section. There is an old school technique for repairing castings "stitching/ lacing" or "cold casting repair". Not sure if it is of interest or use but here are some companies that have been doing this since the 1940's. I recently had a 1920 tractor crankcase repaired using this technique.

 https://www.duny.ca/herculock/cast-component-and-machine-repair/

https://www.castironrepair.com/history

[Aaron Eberhard]

1 hour ago, #Rekd™ said:

Aaron, Looking at the website and noticed the general component repair section. There is an old school technique for repairing castings "stitching/ lacing" or "cold casting repair". Not sure if it is of interest or use but here are some companies that have been doing this since the 1940's. I recently had a 1920 tractor crankcase repaired using this technique.

 https://www.duny.ca/herculock/cast-component-and-machine-repair/

https://www.castironrepair.com/history

I've seen that before, it's pretty cool I haven't seen any large cast iron come through the door since I started, but I'll definitely keep it in mind to chat about when something comes in.  There's been two small bearing housings that have been cracked because someone dropped them, but the solution in those cases was to cut out the area the area that was cracked and braze in a new piece since it was a sealing surface.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

My goal is to expand this into 5 axis aerospace work, we have the contacts & customers here to do it, but we need better equipment.  Luckily we can solve that problem with gratuitous application of money!

Are we talking routers or Mini Mills?

I'm thinking mini-mills for starting out?

1 hour ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

Glad to hear it's still working out for you

 Thanks, you've been a great friend to  all of us here for a long time!!

1 hour ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

Yes, we're using 2022 right now.  I did send in a request to join the Beta program, but Jim is on vacation, so it'll be a bit.

Yeah, I'm not even thinking about beta rn, what I am quickly finding out is that I went to great lengths to build products for Mastercam 2021 & 2022 and that there is more demand for products for older versions, and writing macros to support back to x9, is a nightmare, the changes the the tool system, the changes to the planes class, UNICODE to MCBS,...

 

[gcode]

Quote

On my way to being a crazy and poor machine shop owner.

Aaron.. does your boss know you're wasting time on eMC ??

Get back to work !!!! 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, gcode said:

Aaron.. does your boss know you're wasting time on eMC ??

Get back to work !!!! 

No lie, these forums are the biggest problem for me!!!!!

It was fine when someone else was paying me!!!!

Especially since I have to run my own forum!!  

 

[Aaron Eberhard]

7 hours ago, gcode said:

Aaron.. does your boss know you're wasting time on eMC ??

Get back to work !!!! 

Uh oh, Busted!

[gcode]

13 minutes ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

Uh oh, Busted!

Now you need to put on your boss hat and have a stern discussion with that eMC slacker on your payroll