Video of Solids of Constant Width

Or as i call them by their technical name thingamabobs. These were made on my Harrison M250 lathe converted to CNC.

Control software Mach3, Cad/Cam OneCNC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UWrYydJG0Q

Phil

what are they for?
it does look like you can have hours of fun with them :rofl:

Nice, they look like fun!

Nice...I once made cylindrical version of that.

How did you hold it in the chuck? Soft jaws machined to fit?

Very effective, though kind of cheating rolling them with one soft surface.

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Originally Posted by h4ppy-chris

what are they for?
it does look like you can have hours of fun with them :rofl:

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Well i don't know about hours, few minutes maybe. They have been made for someone to use in demonstrations and have some fun.

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Originally Posted by Jonathan

Nice...I once made cylindrical version of that.

How did you hold it in the chuck? Soft jaws machined to fit?

Very effective, though kind of cheating rolling them with one soft surface.

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They are cylindrical, no i didn't use soft jaws and i am rolling them using shiny clear perspex which is nice and hard.:eek: :smile:

Phil

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Originally Posted by M250cnc

They are cylindrical, no i didn't use soft jaws

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Hmm, so did you machine them all in one operation? Or are you not disclosing how :naughty: I saw the other thread about it here a while ago.

By cylindrical I mean mine were just prisms. I did it in the lathe by offsetting the center and machining it three times.

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Originally Posted by M250cnc

i am rolling them using shiny clear perspex which is nice and hard.:eek: :smile:

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Exactly - now use two pieces of perspex. That would be even more impressive.

The shapes are for me. They look awesome! Looking forward to the postman knocking.

Here's a little blog post I wrote about shapes and solids of constant width :

http://blog.stevemould.com/50p-coins-make-great-wheels/

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Jonathan

Hmm, so did you machine them all in one operation? Or are you not disclosing how :naughty: I saw the other thread about it here a while ago.

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My approach would be to turn the pointy bit and then basically part off the lightly curved face first roughing a relief down to maybe 10mm dia and then finishing the face and parting off the final 10mm in one go - if you get the tool shape right it should work ok.

Anywhere near? :-)

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Originally Posted by FatFreddie

My approach would be to turn the pointy bit and then basically part off the lightly curved face first roughing a relief down to maybe 10mm dia and then finishing the face and parting off the final 10mm in one go - if you get the tool shape right it should work ok.

Anywhere near? :-)

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I thought it might be that, but there's no mark at all at the center of the lightly curved face.

Thanks Phil & Steve. The video is brilliant!
More here on these curves.
HTH
John