Tapered Rope Carving (Can't figure it out)
Hi all,
A fellow woodworker friend had asked me to cut a twisting rope pattern on some legs he was working on for a project.
"Sure, the machine will blaze through that". big mouth, big foot.
Next day, he hands me 4 skinny twigs pre turned on a lathe with a taper in them.
I can't figure out how to cut a spiral rope on a tapered spindle in either vcarve pro or aspire efficiently. It's not a drastic taper. From a 25mm diameter to a 35mm diameter over a 300mm length
I have been able to do a twisted rope in aspire, but it has to be cut with a tapered ball nose (a la 3d raster cut) which ends up taking about 4 hours (not too efficient).
I was wondering; is there any way to project a twisted vector onto the model and do a profile cut on the vector with a rope mold cutting bit for each strand? Would probably be 1/5th of the time and a cleaner finish.
Does anyone have any idea how this could be accomplished or something like it?
Any input or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'm stumped.
Mark