Rope Twister: an indexer program to
create rope twist files
Overview...The Rope Twister does
the calculations and creates the part file to do rope twist turnings on a
ShopBot indexer. It needs one of the fancy rope twist (sometimes called Barley
Twist) bits that look like a stretched out roundover bit that comes to a point
in the center. The program calculates the angle that the twist has to be made in
to fit your blank diameter and bit size, which may or may not end up being the
look that you're shooting for. In other words, if you want a precise SPACING
between the twists this is the program for you, but if you want a particular
ANGLE of the twists then the spiral option in the Indexer Virtual Tool might be
a better choice. [ Update 04/04/07 Calculator added to zip file to
calculate twist values to enter into Indexer Virtual Tool ]
Notes...Your indexer MUST be connected to the B-axis in your control
box for this to work. And the Z-axis has to be zeroed at the center of the
blank.
Contact info...Bill Young
Download size...24 k
Project Type...Program
Additional equipment/software required...nothing other than an
indexer and those fancy bits
Special instructions...It's possible...and quite easy actually...to
enter values for a turning pattern that's impossible to actually turn. For
instance you can't do 3 wraps with a 2" spacing around a 1" radius blank...they
just won't fit.
Known Issues...None so far, but as always make sure that you aircut
to test before actually using the file with a blank.
Confidence...
Completeness...
Download the Rope Twister
Confidence is a measure of how far along a project
is in the opinion of the person that created it. If it only has 1 star then it's
very rough, more likely to not work than to work correctly. 4 stars means that
they think it's ready for prime time and just needs a little more feedback or
testing. A 5 means that it's all done...you won't see any "5 star" projects in
ShopBot Labs because at that point it's ready for release!
Completeness really goes hand in hand with Confidence and is the
measure of how complete they feel the Project download is. It could include
important things like if there are instructions or help files available, but
also might reflect if there are sample files or even simple things like a lack
of icons or graphics.