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What's it called?!?!

PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:28 pm
by SystemsGuy
So I'm working on a gantry design that will use 4 wire ropes as suspension cables. I've seen - pretty sure on a sailboat - a round metal "eyelet" sorta thing that allowed a line to pass through it and out the other side preventing / minimizing wear & friction.

Think of a piece of metal shaped like a funnel - wire comes in the "fat" side and out the "narrow side"....

Re: What's it called?!?!

PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:42 pm
by Improbable Construct
I am not sure about the funnel part but it sounds like what you are looking for is called a "fairlead".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlead

Re: What's it called?!?!

PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:48 pm
by bdring
Some fairleads are really complicated and some are quite simple like this.

892053.jpg
892053.jpg (12.1 KiB) Viewed 25633 times


It sounds like you could be talking about a eyelet or grommet too. Search for those at McMaster for reference.

Could you sketch what you are trying to do?

Re: What's it called?!?!

PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:15 pm
by SystemsGuy
That looks pretty damned close to what I was thinking of Bart. If you had a fairlead that was narrower on the "inside" than the "outside", that's exactly what I'm thinking of...

I've not got a decent drafting program on my laptop - I'll thro something together later this evening. Basically thing of 4 wired attach to 4 points, making an "X". A gantry in the middle suspended from all four, reeling then in and out to move across the width and breath of the square defined by the attachment points...

If you've even seen an indoor football game, you've probably seen the SkyCam going back and forth across the playing field...

Re: What's it called?!?!

PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:32 pm
by cvoinescu
So you want a CoreXY gantry? Why fairleads, why not pulleys?

Edit I take the CoreXY remark back. I think I understand why you want what you want: you have a permanently attached cable which can be pulled at different angles, so it needs a trumpet shape to avoid bending it sharply. I've seen it done with power cords, as an alternative to the usual rubber strain relief devices, for instance here (the cover has the other half of the "trumpet").

Edit Funnily enough, it's called a strain relief trumpet. Here (PDF) and here are two random examples Google came up with.

Re: What's it called?!?!

PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 11:23 pm
by SystemsGuy
Yep - that's pretty damned close, and I'm going to take a look at the Dyson when I get home. I'm thinking your strain relief trumpet is pretty close to what I need! ;-)

And yeah, CoreXY was my first through as a solution as well, at least I'd have been able to use existing firmware! :P

EDITED : Y'all ROCK! ;-)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Holt-6mm-Deck ... 4170040e8e


cvoinescu wrote:So you want a CoreXY gantry? Why fairleads, why not pulleys?

Edit I take the CoreXY remark back. I think I understand why you want what you want: you have a permanently attached cable which can be pulled at different angles, so it needs a trumpet shape to avoid bending it sharply. I've seen it done with power cords, as an alternative to the usual rubber strain relief devices, for instance here (the cover has the other half of the "trumpet").

Edit Funnily enough, it's called a strain relief trumpet. Here (PDF) and here are two random examples Google came up with.