Tapered helix pulley

[rayhawk]

Hi Guys, I have a fun project I am working on, trying to figure out how to model this part. It is basically a pulley with a portion of it the shape of a tapered helix. I got the tapered path figured out, just trying to figure out how to create that 3d surface over the tapered portion. Any thoughts?

 

Pulley.zip

[JD Mather]

Not sure why you are doing this as a surface model.

In any case - I would not use the 3D sketch helix (too hard to create and edit).

I would use Coil Feature instead.

[rayhawk]

Hmmm, it seems like I would still have to come up with some type of sweep to close up the faces that are non-planar. I need to connect the trailing edge of one groove to the leading edge of the next and close that area in somehow. It is basically like a spiral ramp that tapers to a point at each end.

 

I do agree with the 3d helix feature, not the easiest to use.

[JD Mather]

Even if I was going to use surfaces I would use the Coil Feature (even to generate 3d sweep path) rather than 3D sketch.

 

I would still have to come up with some type of sweep to close up the faces that are non-planar.

 

The solution you have doesn't look all that pretty at the intersection between 5 & 6.

[JD Mather]

Looking at it again I might use an intersection something like this technique (adapted for your design).

 

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/content/DSG322/Inventor%20Tutorials/Inventor%2011%20Tutorial%207.pdf

 

The key is I want this curve (red) to be tangent to the two circles from this view.

 

[rayhawk]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will keep working on it to improve those transitions. I will also go through that tutorial and see if I can figure this out, that looks like what I need. Thanks again.