Very nice result Colin! I love seeing these milled pieces, thanks for sharing it.

- Michael

@ Colin - Thanks for the link to Fourth Axis. I was thinking of getting a small milling system, the MX-20 plus 4th Axis might be perfect for me. I just have one question about the noise when operating. How loud is this thing? Is it reasonable to operate next to your PC and still have a telephone conversation? What about when milling aluminum or brass? I am thinking to operate in my apartment or perhaps in my office...

Thanks,
jonah

Hi Jonah,

I have an MDX-20 in my workshop, and with the original motor it was quite loud. Fourth Axis do a conversion to use a Proxxon motor which is much faster , more powerful and quieter. I still would not like to work with it right next to me if I was doing something I had to concentrate on, but a soundproof box should help.
There is an MDX users foum on Yahoo, I hope it is OK for me to put in a link.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mdx_users/

If you go back over past postings it will tell you a lot about the machines and hints about Roland's future plans for the machines.

regards Tim.

Thanks Tim. Will check it out...
jonah

Hi Jonah,

I agree with Tim, the stock motor is very noisy & ideally better off in another room.
But with the mill in a soundproof box, that should make life a lot easier.

If you're looking at milling Aluminium & Brass on a regular basis, then invest in the Fourth Axis-Proxxon Motor conversion as Tim has already suggested.
I haven't got this particular conversion as yet, but from all accounts it's defiantly the way to go.
The big advantage with this conversion & milling wax is you're then able to use the "one tool" strategy that owners of those bigger mills use.
The stock Roland Motor just doesn't even come close to having enough power to do it.

regards Colin

Hi Everyone,

Here's a wax that I've just finished milling as a Master pattern for another Jeweller.
It's for a Bottle Opener keyring that's to be used as a promotional item.
I believe the finished units will be cast in Bronze.
All designed in MoI & milled with a Roland MDX-15 fitted with Fourth Axis rotary unit.

regards Colin

It is just so cool to see these milled parts.

Some of the pockets for the text look pretty small and narrow, but it looks like it has done a good job cutting it.

If you end up getting one of the final bronze pieces, it would be great to see that too! Thanks for sharing the pics,

- Michael

Added to the special thread Gallery :)

Hi Everyone,

In an effort to try & teach myself more on "how to do modelling" with MoI, I made this 1-1 scale Tattoo Machine.
(For what it's worth, within the Tattoo Trade these are called "Machines" & not "guns" as most usually refer)
Mostly all of this was to get a better grasp & understanding of how to use all the different tools in MoI.

The reason I chose a Tattoo Machine is that I used to be a Professional Tattoo Artist for about 20yrs after I first did my apprenticeship as a Jeweller.
Having hand made many of these Machines over those years, I thought it'd be a reasonably good challenge to do one of them in CAD.
Besides that, I've never seen one done as a model before, so figured that also was a good enough reason to try!! : )

One thing I couldn't quite get my head around was making screw threads using the Helix tool.
So of course none of my bolts have any screw threads on them! : (
If someone would like to offer up a basic Tutorial on how to go about producing a threaded bolt, I'd be very grateful.

regards Colin

It would be nice to have a section of the forum to share basic, common objects such as machine screws, hex screws, tires & rims, diamonds, etc.

Why re-invent the wheel when you can steal the plans :)

Ed

Hi Ed, that's a great idea - some kind of model repository. A little bit after V1 has been released and things have died down I am going to be tuning up the web site and forum some more, and I want to put a kind of gallery in for images, and some kind of model repository would be a good idea to do then as well.

- Michael

Hi Colin, nice job on the Tattoo machine, it looks like you are getting increasingly more comfortable building things in MoI!

re: Screw threads - in one sense you may be better off without these since little tiny details like this can tend to add a significant amount of weight and data size to your model. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if your model becomes something like 4 times as big in data size when you try to add these little details in.

But anyway, here is a basic approach if you want to give it a try.

To start with, get your helix and a triangle arranged like this:



Select the triangle and run Construct / Sweep, and pick the helix as the path curve. The helix should be positioned so that it is going up vertically along the world Z axis. Then inside of the Sweep options, you need to set the Twist: option to Twist: Flat - this will prevent the triangle from twisting around as it travels along the helix path. That will give you this shape:



This can now be boolean unioned on to your main bolt shape:



It is probably best if you make the triangle kind of punch through the bolt a little bit instead of trying to make it skim directly along the surface of the bolt. Like in this case, position the triangle a little bit to the left of the bolt body (inside of it). Otherwise if you try to make it skim right along the surface it is too easy for it to just barely skip a tiny amount away from the bolt which makes things more difficult to process for the booleans.

Hope this helps!

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the kind words & Yes, I'm finding that everything is now starting to come together for me in MoI.
I've also found that it's much easier to concentrate on the creative element when in MoI, much more so than in Rhino.
Your whole principle for designing MoI has proven itself to be correct, so I'm very much looking forward to purchasing V1.

I know what you mean about the file size increasing with extra detail, that Tattoo Machine file is already at about 8.3MB.

Thanks for that screw thread info.
Strangely enough I originally tried it just as you've described, but couldn't get the two parts to Boolean Union?
Maybe I didn't have enough of the Profile shape overhanging into the centre Extruded core??
I'll try it again & see how I go.

regards Colin

Hi Everyone,

Here's a project I've been working on, it's an Aussie Digger's Slouch Hat ring.
Apparently the customer's father was a Digger & he wanted something to remember him by.
The idea was that the Hat had to be able to open, so it could contain a lock of his father's hair.
The basic idea was to use a rubber O ring as a seal for the Hat to the ring base.

My intention was to mill each pierce in wax, with the Hat to be in several separate sections.
Hence that's why there's a large gap between the folded rim & the Hat centre.
I intended that those Hat sections would then be joined together in wax, prior to the casting.

Unfortunately the project has now stalled, but thought you might like to see what I'd managed to do with MoI.
It's been an interesting & challenging design which has taught me quite a bit about the different tools.

regards Colin

Hey Colin, that is a very unique and interesting piece of jewelry!

It's too bad that the project has stalled, that would have been a really cool one to see in metal.

It looks like your comfort level with MoI continues to increase!

- Michael

Great Colin. Will have to think hard about some of the ways you must have done that!

added to the Special thread Gallery :)

Hi all
There seem to be quite a few people new to CAD using Moi, and I’m one of them. I have tried using Carrara and this week received Hexagon from Daz3d which they sold for $3. To a beginner like me these modelling packages are extremely difficult to get started with and I much prefer MoI.

Yesterday I was browsing the Hexagan discussion threads at Daz when I cam across someone lamenting the difficulty of learning to use that modeller. I posted a link to MoI telling them how easy it was to use and they replied saying that they weren’t going to look at it and had decided to persevere with Hexagon.

I have also noticed that when posting to the Daz galleries you can choose from a list of software that you might have used to create your masterpiece. I have twice informed them that MoI doesn’t appear in this list but it still isn’t included, or wasn’t on the 15th Janaury.

Is MoI going to be reviewed or publicised anywhere and is there anything helpful that can be done by us the users to promote it?
One obvious possibility is to post a link to the MoI site whenever referencing it. I must remember to do this on Renderosity.

I hope I’m not coming over as a hypocrite as I’m still using the December beta and it would probably help Michael quite a lot if I bought a copy. Nevertheless I do intend to cough up some cash when I can afford it and in the meantime will mention MoI’s merits where ever I get the opportunity.
Keith

Hi Keith, thanks very much for your interest in MoI!


> Is MoI going to be reviewed or publicised anywhere

Yes, there will be a magazine review coming out shortly, I'm not sure if it is next month or the month after. I will definitely announce more details when I know more.

Things are still early in the lifetime of MoI, it will take some time before it gets to be more well known.


> and is there anything helpful that can be done by us the users to promote it?

Just telling your friends about it is a very big help!

Thanks!

- Michael

Colin. Working out your methods for making the Slouch Hat was a great exercise. (Well I worked out methods that had the same result anyway.)
The hat crown worries me a bit though--and I can not work out how you did it either.
Here is an alternative idea (still not quite correct) with the 3dm file if of value to you.
Brian