How to tackle this one?

[OzBrand]

Hi All,

It's been a long while since I've been on here (few years maybe). Haven't done too many projects lately.

I'm a bit hung up on figuring the best way to handle this task. The pic attached is a shaft from a battery isolator which accepts a lever with two guide studs. I need to recreate the slot for the guide studs. The slot which is mirrored across the shaft's centreline axis is perpendicular to the outer cylindrical surface.

This particular example appears to be punched but I have another version which appears to be milled.

So my question is, how would one go about tackling this? I have placed a starting and finishing point on the attached AD-PRT file.

Cheers, Mike B.

 

[Ken226]

Which version of Alibre are you using? If Expert, Sheetmetal would make this a fairly easy task.

 

[HaroldL]

That looks like a good candidate for the Wrap, if you have it. But I can only get it to 1mm deep. Maybe with some work on the sketch it may go all the way thru one side then a mirror to the other side would do it.

I stopped short at the top because it wanted to wrap around the top edge. Not what you want though.

 

[Ken226]

It's not a perfect representation, since I didn't copy your dimensions exactly. I just kinda sketched it real quick by eyeball. My software is set up In inches, so I converted everything and approximated.

But, as a proof of conept, I think sheetmetal will work for what you have in mind. If your using Expert.

If not, either wrap, as Harold suggested or perhaps a series of extrusions, from tangent planes.


Another possibility may be an extrude cut, then a small helical cut.

 

[OzBrand]

Which version of Alibre are you using? If Expert, Sheetmetal would make this a fairly easy task.

Hey Ken, using Expert 2019. Cheers

 

[OzBrand]

That looks like a good candidate for the Wrap, if you have it. But I can only get it to 1mm deep. Maybe with some work on the sketch it may go all the way thru one side then a mirror to the other side would do it.

I stopped short at the top because it wanted to wrap around the top edge. Not what you want though.

View attachment 37042

Hi Harold, I don't have the wrap feature it seems. I guess this is in a later build than mine. Cheers

 

[OzBrand]

It's not a perfect representation, since I didn't copy your dimensions exactly. I just kinda sketched it real quick by eyeball. My software is set up In inches, so I converted everything and approximated.

But, as a proof of conept, I think sheetmetal will work for what you have in mind. If your using Expert.

If not, either wrap, as Harold suggested or perhaps a series of extrusions, from tangent planes.


Another possibility may be an extrude cut, then a small helical cut.

View attachment 37043

Thanks Ken, I can give it a crack in sheetmetal, I didn't think about that but I can see how you've done it. Cheers

 

[Ken226]

Hi Harold, I don't have the wrap feature it seems. I guess this is in a later build than mine. Cheers

Yup. V25 is the first version to have wrap and project. Very cool features.

I'm really digging the wrap and project features!

 

[Ken226]

Thanks Ken, I can give it a crack in sheetmetal, I didn't think about that but I can see how you've done it. Cheers

Here's an earlier thread about a similar operation, in case you find any of the info useful.

I had trouble getting it to work, and if I remember right, Harold solved that issue by suggesting some sheet metal parameter changes.

Rotated slots through a tube

Been away from Alibre for a while and I'm rusty (and older!) I've been trying to figure out how to model two rotated slots 180 degrees apart through a piece of tubing. The ends of the slots have to be rounded as if the slots were cut with an end mill. (cuz they will be) They have to line up so a...

www.alibre.com

 

[OzBrand]

Here's an earlier thread about a similar operation, in case you find any of the info useful.

I had trouble getting it to work, and if I remember right, Harold solved that issue by suggesting some sheet metal parameter changes.

Rotated slots through a tube

Been away from Alibre for a while and I'm rusty (and older!) I've been trying to figure out how to model two rotated slots 180 degrees apart through a piece of tubing. The ends of the slots have to be rounded as if the slots were cut with an end mill. (cuz they will be) They have to line up so a...

www.alibre.com

That's a handy tutorial and nice presented too. Thanks for taking the time to assist. Cheers

 

[OzBrand]

Ok, so I gave the sheetmetal option a crack (thanks Ken) and got a pretty good result except for one thing. The slot faces are not parallel and need to be, due to the parallel pin design of the actuating lever, (see pic). I then upgraded to V25 and tried the wrap feature. Nice feature, but as Harold pointed out I could only extrude this to 1mm and no other tool - move face, remove face, offset face, etc could change that. I finally went with the helix option and although it is not yet technically or dimensionally correct, it's showing some promise. Attached the file if anyone is interested.

 

[Ken226]

Ok, so I gave the sheetmetal option a crack (thanks Ken) and got a pretty good result except for one thing. The slot faces are not parallel and need to be, due to the parallel pin design of the actuating lever, (see pic). I then upgraded to V25 and tried the wrap feature. Nice feature, but as Harold pointed out I could only extrude this to 1mm and no other tool - move face, remove face, offset face, etc could change that. I finally went with the helix option and although it is not yet technically or dimensionally correct, it's showing some promise. Attached the file if anyone is interested.

I'm stumped at getting better results than than the things attempted so far. Perhaps someone with more experience will chime in.

 

[HaroldL]

Remember in Sheet Metal all cuts are perpendicular to the surfaces, that may be the reason the cuts get smaller on the inside.

I went back to a Boolean Subtract. The challenge was to make a two-way helix. But it turned out okay but may need some tweaking to finalize the feature.

 

[OzBrand]

Remember in Sheet Metal all cuts are perpendicular to the surfaces, that may be the reason the cuts get smaller on the inside.

Yep, I figured that out - eventually! I'm going to try your boolean tomorrow Harold. It took me less than a day to design the first iteration of the whole switch, contact, springs, housing, studs, etc yet I've frigged around with the slots on this shaft for around 3 hours now.

 

[HaroldL]

Ok, so I gave the sheetmetal option a crack (thanks Ken) and got a pretty good result except for one thing. The slot faces are not parallel and need to be, due to the parallel pin design of the actuating lever, (see pic). I then upgraded to V25 and tried the wrap feature. Nice feature, but as Harold pointed out I could only extrude this to 1mm and no other tool - move face, remove face, offset face, etc could change that. I finally went with the helix option and although it is not yet technically or dimensionally correct, it's showing some promise. Attached the file if anyone is interested.

Why don't you submit the Wrap issue to Support to see if they can figure out why it only cuts 1 mm deep. It may turn out to be a limitation of the tool or maybe just a bug.

 

[idslk]

Nice feature, but as Harold pointed out I could only extrude this to 1mm

why it only cuts 1 mm deep

it cuts deeper, but will not help...(i've tried also different focus points...)


Regards
Stefan

 

[idslk]

Hello @HaroldL ,

would you mind making the hole from your boolean part smaller, like 3mm (for a much thicker wall of the tube...) and post the result?

Regards
Stefan

 

[idslk]

Possibly another way would come nearer:





Regards
Stefan

 

[Ken226]

I tried a convoluted mix of planes, helical cuts and booleans. Way too much work though.

 

[Ken226]

Now that I've had my morning coffee, gonna give it another try.

My last try gave me the idea to try it with nothing more than a couple helical cuts, and some fillets. With the sketches for the helical cuts set on planes that are normal to the helix angle of the cuts. The helical cuts terminate at the bottom of OzBrand's pre-existing hole, blended with fillets.

It wasn't difficult at all, and only took a few minutes.

I tried to keep the distance between the cut faces at 4.35mm at all points along the cut, the same diameter as his starting holes. Not sure I succeeded though, but I bet it's close.

This time I did it using OzBrands own part, so it's in mm rather than inches.




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