CAD: Making a cam mechanism

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

anyway the question I have for you is how critical is the cam to have a follow cam profile? You could just use a cylinder piece of stock and drill the rotation hole offset from the center and get a cam effect. If you use a 3in piece and drill it .5 in off center you will get the same extreme's that you are looking for.

I guess I am wondering if the quick transition is actually necessary.

A very slow transition is what I'm after actually. The application for the cam is to act as a lock against a sliding Stackerbox transmission that acts as a low-maintenance chain tensioning system. The cam itself will have very little force put on it since the 4 bolts from the transmission will be tightened into the sliding plate, but the cam is necessary to make the overall tensioning system more reliable.

A symmetric cam may work just as well as what I want, but if I can have my cheese and eat it too then for now I will. In all actuality, to create the actual lock from 1/4" aluminum plate (I'm also looking into hardwoods) on a CNC, it will take either two passes for setup, or the final 90 degrees of the cam will have to be manually cut.