On 05/22/2011 11:46 AM, Ernest Christley wrote:

On 05/22/2011 07:15 AM, Kelly Troyer wrote:

Ernest,

 

    Since my mind cannot get around "Cast a thick cylinder, and then drill 1" holes from the sides towards the center"

how about a sketch or drawing of this idea !!..............

 

As a first pass, this is what I'm proposing.

After sending the picture, I got to thinking that the picture was just lame when I could send a 3D drawing that everyone could use.  Unfortunately, the drawing as shown takes about 5megs.  Somewhat larger than the per email limit our list has.

Anyone wishing to participate in the brainstorming, yell and I'll send the HeeksCAD drawing.  I can export to other formats, but I haven't had good luck with 3D file interchange.  Probably be simpler for everyone to install HeeksCAD and then do the file conversion locally.  HeeksCAD is really cool.  It is probably only good for simple designs, but it has the incredible price of FREE!!.  It is open-source.

http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/
The download link is mid-way down the left side.  Linux users can get Ubuntu packages at https://m21.hyte.de/blog/heekscad%200.14.1 but I've not tested them.  I compiled from source.

There are some good tutorials to get you started on youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idV54AqNbPo