Routing a pineapple finial

[ckurak]

I have a potential customer who needs fence/sign post finials routed out of 4"x4" recycled plastic material. Each finial would probably be about 6-7" high. He says the material routes as easily as wood. (Some quick research on the Internet seems to verify this. I believe he is talking about HDPE. He did say recycled milk jugs.) He has about 6 shapes including spheres and pyramids, as well as a pineapple shape (complete with grooves so it looks more like a pineapple).

Has anyone any ideas what software/hardware would be needed to do this? I'm pretty sure that an indexer would be required. Currently I have no clue as to what software could do this. Keep in mind that these would be outdoor fence post or sign post finials, not expensive works of art. :-)

Can the material be held in place with only one end of it attached to the indexer? Or, maybe I could cut several at once. The material comes in 4"x4" x long_lengths (12' at one website). Then, I could simply cut them apart by hand and touch up the ends with a hand sander.

Anyone have a guess on how long it would take to route one of these parts? Yes, I know I would need to include setup time in my costs. That's where the multiple parts cut out of a long piece of stock might help.

Charles

[edwardmc]

As far as the pineapple goes. You can cut it with two pases on a indexer the first cut is clockwise spiral and second anticlockwise spiral. And the indexer can be setup as long as you can get the materal to stay strate. If you materal wants to sag it wont cut. I have used two rolers setup in the center for suport, but this dont work if you are taking off much materal. You dont need any software indexer.sbp will do the pineapple. but you will want to modafy it for speed if you where cuting the same part over and over. Geting the post round is a diferant problem. The indexer file for that is slow and wont work for you.

I make Canes and cut the blanks on a dowl machine
and profit is not in my plan. So I get by with the software that came with my shopbot. But you will need some thing better if you like money. You can do some wild thing with the indexer and have a lot of fun. Turning flat files to the round is grate with some planing when you make the flat file.

I hope this helps
Ed McCullough
e.mccullough@insightbb.com (mailto:e.mccullough@insightbb.com)

[ckurak]

Ed,

Thanks. I now have two new questions.

1) What bit would you use for this? I thought about a wide-angled V-bit, but the information about HDPE says to avoid sharp inside edges and to keep things rounded.

2) Where do I find indexer.sbp? (Remember I don't have a Bot yet.) I looked through all of the sample files that I have downloaded from the shopbot website and the demo discs that we received at the Ohio camp. I can't find it. I wanted to play with it and run it on the ShopBot simulator. Maybe I can get some timing information from it also. I don't believe the simulator has an indexer option, but I should be able to visualize the Y-axis as the circumference around the object.

By the way, the canes you brought to the camp were quite impressive! Thanks for bringing them.

Charles

[jay]

Ed, not having the opportunity to go to 'Camp' I would love to see some pictures of the canes you make. Do you have a web site?

If you don't want to post pic's here please email me.
Jay Pollard, Thunder Bay, Canada

[edwardmc]

The best I rember I got the indexer file on shopbot's ftp site. Do a keyword search. If you cant find it email me and I well try to help.

I have been trying to make a webpage forgive my spelling and I have changed the price to $ 35.00 for all Canes for now. I well try to paste the address.
http://home.insightbb.com/~handicappedcrafter/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

look under pictures. The canes with the glass knob and the 8 ball have the pinapple cut.

I need to change the page I have sold some of the ones there and made new but if you see some thing you like I could get close to the same

Ed McCullough
e.mccullough@insightbb.com (mailto:e.mccullough@insightbb.com)