Hole in a square tube or plate?

[Allcutup]

Looking to put a hole in the middle of a square tube with CFPRO… How do you Fusion it and sheetcam it ? So you can llne up tube with center of hole and cut it ???

[TinWhisperer]

Indexing your material is going to be the biggest challenge.

Fusion does not care if its tube or plate its laying everything out on the whichever flat plane you decide.

Indexing Jig ideas

I had what I thought was a good index, but after getting motivated by this post, I did a big improvement. I designed two brackets to bolt to the frame rail (the front one utilizes the existing 5/6" bolt. I included slot cuts in the brackets to allow for adjustments. They are bent at the notch points in the attached .dfx file. After bolting to the frame, I used a notched piece of 1x1 angle 41.75" long that serves as the index edge guide. Using a cut off nail head in the torch end, I easily line…

here is one example of an indexing jig

Search “indexing” at the magnifying glass above for more examples.

[ds690]

You could get pretty close by zeroing the torch on the edge of the tube and then jogging over half the width of the tube and resetting the zero. Then set the origin to the center of your hole.

[Cletus]

I did that sometime ago by 3D printing a cone that slipped over the torch nozzle, align the point of the cone to the position you want, zero, jog Z up, remove cone and Bob’s your uncle. I’ve always intended to make one out of aluminum, maybe this weekend.

EDIT: Not my idea, someone else invented such, I believe I made mine to just slip on and off though:

3D Printed Indexing Tip For PTM/IPT-60

I printed this indexing tip for my PTM-60. Screws onto torch head in place of retaining cap/shield cup. A standard electrode can remain on the head. This would be a cheap easy alternative if you have access to a 3D printer, instead of installing and aligning lasers. May even assist in aligning lasers. Should work with any torch that takes the same retaining cap or shield cup. Threads are M18 x 1.0. Initial thread-on will be a little tight as male torch head cleans up the printed threads. …

[Allcutup]

Thanks for all the answers … I figured it out by changing the ORIGIN of the start of cut…