Tube through a Plate

[CharlesM479]

I have a flat plate and I need to put a 2" tube through the plate at a 45deg angle. I have the plate complete but I don't know how to do the tube. My first thought was to make the hole in the plate then create another part and mate it in an assy. I don't know how to make an egg shapped hole for the hole so that won't work. Next I made a line at 45 deg on the edge but I could not dim to the center of the plate. I was thinking I would just extrude a tube along that line. What is the best way to do this?

[DareBee]

Make a plane at 45degrees to the top of the plate.
Draw your circle on the plane and extrude it through the plate.

This is 1 of MANY poosible ways to do the job.

If you want you can actually show the tube and extrude it as a multibody. Then convert the outside edge and extrude- cut through the plate body only.
Then you can suppress or hide either body to show which you want to be seen.
You can also select the multibodies and save them as individual components.
Works almost like an assembly only without mates and all that crap.

On a personal note I tend to use multibody parts in a lot of cases that could only be done as a much more complicated assembly in the past.

[CharlesM479]

Thanks DareBee, it tool a little work to get the plane the way I wanted but I was able to do it. I did the cut then made the tube go though it.

Here is a pic of what im working on. I have two problems. First I have a rod that goes through the middle and connects the bearings. How should I mate these together? I want the rod in the middle of the slot. I would also like to move back and forth to make sure my cylinder stoke will be long enough.

Second question. How do I make cuts for o-rings. I need to put an o-ring seal around the bottom of the box and I need to put snap rings on the shaft to hold the bearings. I started with the box just putting a rectangle around the bottom then I was going to do a revolved cut but I could find everything I needed.

Thanks for the help this fourm is great. I did find several things that helped me. For example the mates on the bearings to the rail.

[JerryFlyGuy]

O ring cuts are pretty simple, it takes a sketch w/ two circles concentric w/ each other and you just cut them to the needed depth. If the o-ring groove has a taper to it, then it needs to be cut w/ either draft in the cut [extruded cut] or a revolved cut. Same w/ the snap ring grooves. Newer versions of SW have a cir-clip groove tool which will cut them as needed, however I generally find it just as fast to cut them w/ a revolve.

As to the cut of the tube thru the plate.. I would do this at an assembly level. Reason being is if you ever need to move that tube around in relation to the plate, the hole will move w/ it. What you need to is make the assembly w/out the hole in it.. then edit the part [in the assembly] and add a cut, but select the end of the tube as your sketch plane.. convert the od of the tube as your sketch and cut it through all, down thru the plate.. you'll get the proper profile and it will follow that tube wherever you move it in the future..

To mate the two bearings.. make them concentric.. they will always be aligned w/ each other.. if you want.. [I assume they are held a certain distance appart by the existing track you have] then add your rod in between them.. I'd do that step as a top down feature as well. Insert a new part.. select a face on the bearing where the end of the rod will be.. extrude the rod to the other bearing using a face of the other bearing as a "up to surface" limit.. there again.. if you ever make the assembly wider or narrower.. it will adjust the rod automatically.. if you link the rod size to the "description' cell of the Properties of the part.. it will always reflect the proper size in the BOM w/out ever having to go "fix it"..

Best

Jerry

[DareBee]

2 ways to figure the cylinder stroke.
The most accurate, simplest method is to mate the moving slide at 1 end of it's movement, suppress the mate you just made and add 1 mate to fix it at the other end of it's stroke. You can suppress and resolve these 2 mates as needed to measure for fitting.
The more fun, but potentially less accurate method is to use a "limit" mate in the advanced mates dialogue. The unit will move freely by dragging and you can measure as you wish.

There is also a "Physical dynamics" move that will work but......I don't have the time
There are reasons why training courses are thousands of dollars and after 7 years of extensive use of this software I still am only seeing the tip of the iceberg, you need to do every tutorial you can find and use the (extremely good) help files all the time.

[CharlesM479]

Thanks for all the help. We are a small company and I pushed them last year to get solidworks. I've been pushing them the last few months to get everyone trained. My boss is the one that needs it and will be using it the most but he is busy busy busy. So a couple of weeks back I started just learning it on my own. My plan was to show my boss how easy it is and what he is missing. Before then I had not used it but I had seen some demo's. My previous job I used AutoCad and ProE. So now im a couple of weeks into it. I have worked through 4 or 5 of the tutorials. I convinced my boss to give me some of his work (because he's so busy) and I started doing it in SW. He is taking a lot of looks at what im doing and how great it looks. So I think training is a month or so away but is coming.

Anyway I got the snap rings to work and I still have some trouble with mates but the more I use it the better I get. I am planning on going in tomorrow and work through a couple more tutorials. I would like to do some sheet metal work. So I may have some questions next week. Again thanks for all the help.

[JerryFlyGuy]

Charles, there's several of us on here who enjoy the use of solidworks, fire any questions you can we'll all be glad to take a shot at telling how we each do it. You'll soon learn [if you haven't realized already] that if there is 1 way to do something, there's usually 10 ways.. each w/ its own distinct route..

Welcome to the club

Jerry