Another method would be to loft each profile after joining the edges to make curves,

make sure you have Cap ends checked in the Loft options which makes the Loft a solid and the Boolean union will work.




Cheers
~Danny~

Good Evening, Everyone....

Thanks to all who have responded. I am attaching 4 examples. Shape 1 is the original.

Shape 2 is where I have selected the curves on each half and joined them without removing
the end cap. It worked when I selected "cap ends" and I Boolean=>Unioned. Each section was recognized as a solid. Great! Apparently the "cap ends" choice was the difference.

Shape 3 is where I removed the cap ends, joined the curves and ran loft. None of the sections was
any longer recognized as a solid nor could I Union them.

Shape 4 is where I experimented with turning "Cap ends" and determined that was the culprit.
I've left Shape 4 as a candidate for lofting where I have joined both curves. I did not remove
the end caps before I ran the loft. It was the option "Cap ends" that determined if the result
was a solid or non-solids. You can simply use the Loft option, select the two curves and make
sure "Cap ends" is selected. Voila! perfect.

Thanks Everyone....I can now engrave the shanks with text as solids.

Hi Bob, yup if you want to use boolean union you will want to form the various pieces as solids, since the booleans are oriented towards working on solids.

It can sometimes not be quite as easy to make each piece a solid though, particularly if the end profiles of your shapes are not planar - the end cap option in the various surfacing commands like extrude, sweep, loft, only know how to automatically cap planar ends.

So if it is not easy to make the connector piece as a solid, then you can use the other technique that I described above where you can glue 2 surfaces that touch each other along an edge using the Join command. If you're using this technique then that's when you would delete any end caps because the Join command joins together open edges that are not already attached to something.

Does that make sense?

Working with solids at each stage can often be a convenient way to do things though, so yes if you plan to use boolean operations to combine things together you'll want to form each piece as a solid meaning having the end cap option enabled when you create each piece.

- Michael

Thank You, Michael...

Each time I work on a new project I learn something new and each time it becomes a bit easier.

I do appreciate all of the time you and your forum members take to help those of us who are
beginners. I can always count on someone coming through with a tip or trick to make the
task easier or solve my problem.

Thanks everyone...Bob