Cylinder casting for a model live steam engine. 3.5" gauge I believe. The cores were printed as positives, then molds were taken from them using repro. The one part is a jig for gluing up the cores, and the other is the pattern half that is mirrored on a match plate.
I mean it is not a striking resemblance but if you can use solidworks you can learn alibre really quick. I was printing within a couple hours of downloading it. I also downloaded a few others to try and did not like the format...seems like they were designed for 3D animation and not parametric modeling. Like David said there is usually an icon for about whatever you want to do. The biggest issue I have had with Alibre is not having a draft function. I use the draft function on solidworks in almost every model.
It does have a draft function. It's in a couple spots. One is when you extrude you can specify draft as a positive or negative angle, or use the draft icon and select the side to be drafted and reference surface..
I j I am going to have to check into that...mine doesn't have the icon. I use the extrude draft feature but have been using cuts to do any under draft or sides if I dont want to draft the whole part...kind of a pain in the ass. Im going to be mad as hell if I find that icon after drawing with it for a week.LOL
Mine does look different....maybe just how I have it set up....not sure but I will find it when I get home. Glad you showed me that! Thank you sir!
Now that I look closer I see there are a couple of icons I do not have on my version that are on yours. Now I want to go home and mess with it instead of working here at my boring job....even more than usual.LOL
Thanks, I'm solidworks trained (That just means they spent a lot of time showing a monkey how to use it) but the alibre looks like a good cost effective alternative, even the commercial licenses are not as heavy in price. I'll look into the trial version. Thanks again.
Honestly I cant remember if it is atom or not...I Yeah..that is the difference. Looks like I need to upgrade. Which version are you using? I am trying to get my company to let me use my solidworks license at home so I dont have to buy any software and frankly I could use lots more training time. I dont use half of the features it has and could play around with them at home (while designing patterns for my foundry). I am messing around with the idea of building a molding machine at home and I can do much more in assemblies with solidworks, but that may just be because I am using atom.
I'm running the expert. I know it's pricey, but the people at alibre have all ways been good to me over the years. When I initially purchased it they set it up for monthly payments instead of having to buy it in one big lump. I looked at atom when it first came out as a friend of mine was interested in purchasing it for himself. He is a patten maker. I could not recommend atom as it is so stripped down, and would be aggravating for me to loose so many features that I am used to having. I know there is work arounds but I have become so used to working in assembly mode that I would not want to go without it. Injection molder you say?? I was working on building one before I bought the farm. Something tells me its unlikely I will ever go back to it. I do have a small bench model that I have barely played with.
That is too cool! I was going to build a horizontal hand molding machine but when I started designing the parts it became clear that I was not being nearly lazy enough and should have the machine do most of the work. Now it is evolving into a vertical molding machine. I will see if I can throw together some of my ideas later and see if I can get some feedback on the design from you guys. I have already printed off some parts and will need to pour them first them made regardless of how I decide to do it.
Would have been better if I actually finished it. This goes back to where I wanted to make the tank treads for my rov project. I figure injecton molding them would have been the fastest way to do them. ( thats the thing in my avatar ) It was my first cad modeling project ever and I did it in the first 2 weeks of owning alibre.
Awesome! I got a few snips of the design I started but it does not have the pattern and sand hopper in them. I dont want to add a video to my youtube channel or I would make an animation of how it works.
You meant sand molding, not hand molding?? I think anyways... if so.... Have you considered shellcore?? You can just use a pressure pot sand blaster to blow the thermal setting sand into a vented mold...
I have not..until I read your comment. Very similar though huh? I may have designed this based on my subconscious memory of the ones we used to have here. The push pins that remove the cores are like the secondary plate and pins in my design..which is only for ejection. I am deciding whether to make bands to go around the individual mold or stack them in a line like we do here. So many options.LOL If I put the pattern in the middle it will draw the mold away from the pattern and leave two molds with impressions facing the center of the machine that will have to be assembled front to front, but if I make the pattern on the push rods it will be one mold with a front and back half and you just continually stack them together front to back. It will be much easier to place the pattern in the middle which is what I have drawn here but I have not completely abandoned the idea of pushing two patterns toward the center as filling the mold would be much easier. I may even scrap the top sand feed and opt for filling it from the rear before the seal plate is pushed into the chamber. Im still gathering parts for the build but am just about ready to start construction so I need to make a decision.LOL My first inclination is to make it as simple as possible and make improvements as I go. Im sure it is overkill for the amount of molds I will be making but it is going to be damn cool and heck somebody else may want one one day.LOL
