At the Fox and Hounds Pub there is a small area above the bar cooler door that we left a couple of plastic pipes exposed. Our intent is to make them into some funky copper plumbing with a variety of taps. What their actual 'function' might be is mysterious but it will be an interesting vignette. I was going to use some real taps but decided instead to just route some from 30 lb Precision Board. It will save me time and I will also get exactly what I need for the job.
This is the kind of project I enjoy, figuring out how to make these complex shapes in EnRoute. I decided the taps would be six sided so I first created the spokes of the tap, some concentric circles and the smaller circles which I would use as guidelines for my final shape. I know there is a way to position the circles around the outside automatically but I couldn't remember so I did it by hnd. In=For this file total accuracy wasn't critical.
Then I used the drawing tool and drew a12 sided shape using the intersecting points of the smaller circles as my reference points. Then I used the line editing tool to bend them to the right shape using the small circles as reference. Then I could delete the circles.
I used the offset tool to build the inside rim of the tap and shortened the spokes, and finally rounded their ends. I created one more offset to use as my zero height relief on which I would build the file. I like to route my small parts in this fashion as if I purposely leave an onion skin on the bottom the parts stay on the table securely.
The zero height background relief was the first step. then I added the rim of the tap as shown.
The spokes were next but built as a separate piece. They would be merged highest later.
Then I built the center section using the bevel tool but limiting the height to create a flat top and bevelled edge.
Then I modified this relief with a tapered hole in the center. It will guide me when I drill for a piece of doweling later. I could have drilled it with the router but I haven't decided the size yet.
At this point everything was merged (highest) with the zero height relief. Too pathing was easy on this piece. Since there isn't any real detail and I wanted the inside corners to have a slight radius I decided to route it with only one tool - a 3/8 ball nose bit. The taps are to be machined from 30 lb Precision Board so they could be done in one pass. I used an 80 % overlap.
In the next post I'll show the pics of the finished project and a short movie to show just how FAST the new MultiCam handled the task.
-dan
