hi all, Im trying to develop a shape thats a bit complex to me, for fabrication at work. What we have is a large copper furnace, its a cylinder lying on its side. The cylinder is about 20 feet in diameter. I have to build a mouth to sit on top of it, you could imagine the mouth as being a second piece of pipe, meeting the cyllinder at a 90degree angle. The mouth itself is actually a shape with two straight sides (parallel to the ends of the cyllinder) and two curved sides running parallel to the cyllinder, each curved side with a different radius.
Ive drawn out the cyllinder and the mouth, in plan and in section and the results are showing me what i want, but its not really what i want. The purpose of this drawing is to allow me to make dimensions for making the two curved pieces. What i really want, is to be able to 'unroll' the curved piece so its flat, then i can take dimensions off it at will. Imagine, more simply if you like that im just joining two pipes together, and the second pipe is joining into the middle of the first one. what i really want is to be able to slit that second pipe down the middle and unroll it so its now a piece of flat sheet. any clues how to do this? Im sure there is something simple i can do here that im missing.
the alternative, is looking at the overhead view, taking lines every foot or so and drawing them out onto the front and side views then taking individual measurements.... but this really only gives me true lengths while the piece is *curved*. Which means the sheet will need to be rolled first, then measurements projected onto it from a hypotehtical flat line, then the ellipse drawn, then cut. In an ideal world i would be able to calculate that ellipse first, mark it out onto a flat sheet, cut it, then put it through a roller and it would all fit up nicely. The sheet of steel is about 2" thick which is why it would be easier to cut ot before rolling.
Any and all advice welcome! Shaun Australia