Threaded Bolt Puzzle

mrdesignery

mrdesignery

0
Threaded Bolt Puzzle

Hello all, the other day I tried to make a threaded bolt - there are various ways of doing this, but the one I put to the test was to make a sweep combining first a rectangular spline (rotated at 45), with a helix (lots of difference between beginning and end angle to produce nice even multiple thread). what i noticed is that when the rectangular spline (at 45 degrees on its corner), snakes it way up the helix to the top several times, it tends to rotate along the direction of the Helix - thus producing a rather interesting effect but not a very even thread at all. Im sure there might be a really simple way of controlling the angle of the rectangular spline throughout its journey from the top to the bottom of the helix - maintaining its 45 degree angle (on point). any ideas please? Any other techniques for producing even thread for a bolt would be much appreciated. Thanks, Ian.
 

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simple solution

Hello Frank. I found that using the wrap tool can produce a very nice result and very quickly. Thanks for all your help! Ian
 
bolt image using wrap tool

here is a simple bolt made using a wrap tool - a simple cube with maximum subdivisions was rotated to 45 degrees and placed into a wrap. The beauty of the wrap is that it allows for lots of tweaking and change before committing to the polygon final. Seems to be quick and very controllable. Of course one could use different shape to give a more sophisticated and realistic finish before wrapping.
 

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even simpler

after making your simple screw thread in the wrap simply remove the inner polygons to make it smaller file size. Hope this is helpful.
 

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Hi Ian.
Yes - this has a lot of potencies: You can push it even further, by ringcut the inner polygons, deleting them and optimize the mesh for connecting the points to become a "tight" mesh ;)

With kindest regards
Frank
 

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Don't Forget Your Head!

Okay - so far so good - now what's the best and easiest way of producing a good looking head for the bolt?
 

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1. Is it possible to construct the bolt to be an accurate 1/4" 20˚ pitch thread?
2. Which of the previous displayed methods would be best for achieving accurate threads that could be "printed" and work properly?

Thanks!
 
apixelpro said:
1. Is it possible to construct the bolt to be an accurate 1/4" 20˚ pitch thread?
2. Which of the previous displayed methods would be best for achieving accurate threads that could be "printed" and work properly?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

If you can provide a blueprint - why not?
Thread Pitches.jpeg

Cheers
Frank
 
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frank beckmann said:
If you can provide a blueprint - why not?

Cheers
Frank
Click to expand...

LOL- because I su... have a really difficult time with this app, even when I have instructions...

For example, I followed the tip on make a square editable, the subdivide about 4-5 times, then twist:
http://www.jessecoleman.com/pubmedia/cheetah3D/squarebolt.jpg
http://www.jessecoleman.com/pubmedia/cheetah3D/badbolt.jpg


I dont even understand how you got from step one to step 2- where did the tube/wall come from?!?: http://www.jessecoleman.com/pubmedia/cheetah3D/badstart.jpg

If that's the simple version, I'm worse than a simpleton!
:confused:
 
Shift Studio said:
Hi all.

I'm also looking to build a good hex bolt head and hex nut.
Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks, Sheldon.
Click to expand...

Some ideas:

Make a Disk polygon, turn it editable, select all and then extrude to make it a "3d" shape and then edit the shape (using extrude and shell) as needed to make the head or nut.

Or try this: Disk polygon object, Shell modifier (makes it a 3d hex shape) and then add Displacement modifier and add an image that puts the "hole" in.
 
Not to take away from the ways Frank and others on how to do it in Cheetah. Blender now has a built in Python Script called "Bolt Factory". You have to go to: File > User Preferences, select the "Addons" tab at the top and then the "Add Mesh" tab on the left. Under that you'll see "Bolt Factory" as one of the scripts you can enable with the check box on the right. To use it in your scene go to: Menu bar item "Add" > Mesh > Bolt. The settings to fine tune the bolt are in the bottom left. You can even change the object to a nut in those settings. I ended up finding this because I've been practicing with modeling our engineering drawings. I'll be practicing with the methods described here, but if you're in a hurry this could help in a pinch.

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Add_Mesh/BoltFactory

Maybe one of the javascript gurus could port it so we can use it in C3d? I'll maybe post over there and see if anyone is interested. I would give it a shot, but I’m an idiot when it comes to programming.
 
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Thanks you guys!

I'm going with Frank's method - I was definitely close to this, but his method is a little cleaner than where I was headed next.

Swizl - thats cool - yes, it would be nice to see it implemented in c3d too!

--Shift Studio.
 
Simple Threaded

Here's a bolt made from a helix. The threads are pretty rounded, but I was trying to keep the polycount low.Mesh after modifiers:
Polygons: 8992
Vertices: 8994
 

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