Need Help with Drilling Multiple Holes on an Arc

[josephahoffmann]

Hello,
I am looking to get some help on how to drill multiple holes on an Arc. I am creating a Pen Stand out of MDF and I need to have half holes, if you will, cut on the arc of the board. The attached mpc file is the top of my stand and the pic is of what I am trying to do. If someone can please let me know if there is a quick way of putting 5/8" holes every 3/4" apart on my project. Thank you in advance for all of your help figuring this out.

[bergerud]

That was a great problem. I love stuff like that. Unfortunately, I could not find a way to automate that. Manual only!

Here is what I did:

1. Made a whole lot of 1.5" diameter drill holes and placed them near the curve. (grouped them so they were easier to select.)
2. Made them hidden to hide the actual holes. (The dotted circles are much easier to place.)
3. Removed the cut path to leave a dotted reference arc.
4. Placed the centers if the drills one by one along the arc so that each center was on the circle of the previous drill. (zooming in as I went.)
5. With all the 1.5" drills selected, I changed their diameters to 5/8".

[DickB]

Nice! I like it.

[lynnfrwd]

If you do a circle with carve region, can you make into a pattern and then do Pattern Along a Path to get # and spacing, then outline, remove unwanted part of circle and make one segment for cutting? Just a thought too late in the day to try......

[lynnfrwd]

More than one way to "skin a cat"?!?!

[bergerud]

I did give that a try Connie. It was not as accurate and it would not work for him since he has 1.187. Plus, I really wanted to use drills!

Edit: Actually, that does work pretty well Connie.

[lynnfrwd]

I, also, love the challenges of how to design something. There are usually multiple ways to accomplish the task. Toying with the idea of how to incorporate this into a session for the conference.

[bergerud]

See if there is a way to do this with the pattern along a path. It should be possible.

[josephahoffmann]

Thanks everyone for all of the tips. I am going to try them tonight when I get home. I will let you know how it went. Thanks again.

[zan29]

Is this what you're looking for?