Re: Direction follower ?

I'm not sure how you'r going to mount your cutter, but assuming that
its able to rotate and you're using a 4-axis controller then even a
simple timing belt / pulley setup should be good enough to align your
cutter in the right direction.
Working out the angle of cut at it's simplest would be the direction
vector to the next point on the toolpath which could probably even be
done in Excel although I suspect that you might want to implement
some look-ahead and smoothing and to detect acute angles for lifting
the cutter if it comes to too sharp a corner.
Does feedrate need to be controlled according to the curve that the
cutter is following ?

Good luck,

Rab

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "turbulatordude" <davemucha@j...> wrote:
> Hi Brian,
>
> Thanks,
>
> I too know that you cannot cut rectangles without lifting the
cutter.
>
> But, my intention is to cut patterns. curves and such.
> So, just as you could curve your cutter when you cut by hand, the
> cutter should rotate to always be aligned to the direction of cut.
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "Brian" <ka1bbg@w...> wrote:
> > Hi, well my years of cutting glass tell me if you spin the wheel
> with
> > pressure on it you probably will break the glass or make a star
> crack. to
> > make square edges you must lift,orientate,start the new cut
before
> the old
> > cut line to make a clean break reliably. good luck brian f.
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "turbulatordude" <davemucha@j...>
> > To: <CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y...>
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 9:56 PM
> > Subject: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Direction follower ?
> >
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > I am still toying with cutting glass and found that a weighted
> > > standard glass cutter will cut glass easily enough.
> > >
> > > the problem is turning the cutter so it is always facing the
> > > direction of cut. This is similar to knife cutting vynal, but
it
> > > appears to me that the action would have to be pretty accurate
in
> > > angling in the direction of cut so as to score the glass
cleanly.
> > >
> > > Any ideas on how best to do this ?
> > >
> > > Dave
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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