- Help:
- Site Usage
- Basic layout of pages
- Using the calculators
- Using the bolt circle calculator
- Using the Forums
- Browser compatibility
- Internet protocols used
- Site Usage:
- TheoreticalMachinist.com intended main audience are machinists. It is to be used as a reference for commonly used technical details relating to general machining tasks. It is not a “How-To machining guide” and assumes the user has basic machinist training and/or experience and follows basic safety guidelines.
- Basic layout of pages:
- (This layout scheme may change in the future)
- 1- Clicking on the “TheoreticalMachinist.com” logo at the top left of each page will bring you back to the home/main Navigation page.
- 2- Clicking on links in the “Popup Selector” at the top right of the pages will open a new smaller window of the selected chart. If your browser does not allow “Popups”, a new tab in your browser will be created or the current content in your browser will be replaced by the selected chart. Most Popup charts contain more data than is initially displayed. There is a scroll bar to the right of these charts that allow you to scroll up or down to view all the data contained the chart.
- 3- The “Main menu” on the left side of each page shows a categorized view of all the pages that is available on “ThoreticalMachinist.com” from almost anywhere on the site.
- 4- At the bottom of most pages are the footer where the legal notices and other information reside.
- 5- The center of each page is where the main content is. It changes depending on which link is selected. It is arranged in a “Liquid CSS style”: the content is rearranged as the browser window is resized.
- 6- The right area of each page is where basic and relevant information is displayed. It changes depending on the content in the main content area.
- Using the calculators:
- 1- The input fields on each calculator are color coded, the color describes the type of data that can be;
- a. Typed in
- b. Selected
- c. Selected or typed in
- d. Read only
-
2- After typing in or selecting all data in the required fields, clicking the “compute” button will give you the result(s). If the data that was typed in or selected was invalid, the cursor will be place back in the topmost input field having erroneous data and the content will be erased. Revise the data and re-click “compute” button.
- 3- The results are only calculated after clicking the “compute” button. Make sure the “compute” button was clicked before using the results that were calculated.
- Using the bolt circle calculator:
- The bolt circle calculator tool generates a list of X and Y coordinates of a pattern of holes with the origin, X0/Y0, located at the center of the evenly distributed holes.
You must enter Four, 4, numerical inputs and click the "Compute" button to
generate the lists of coordinate of a bolt hole circle pattern and have an
active connection to the internet.
- The units of measure can be anything you want as long as they are all of the same type. They must be all inches, all millimetres, all metres, etc...
- The diameter of the bolt circle.
- • A positive decimal unit. ex: 5.121
- The diameter of the holes.
- • A positive decimal unit. ex: 0.5
- The number of holes that will be evenly distributed around the bolt circle.
- • A positive cardinal, whole, number unit. ex: 1, 2, 7, 24. About ~1000 holes can be generated.
- The starting angle of the first hole of the pattern.
- • A positive or negative decimal unit. The negative sign of the number must always appear as the first character. ex: 30, -25.5, -99.875, 22.5
- • A positive or negative "formated" sexagesimal: angular, number unit. ex: 235º30'15", -45º55.5".
- • Sexagesimal numbers must be "formated" using letter suffixes; d for degrees, m for arc minutes, s for arc seconds. ex: 235d 30m 15s
- • Entering weird numbers: ex: 3356.5dCr4$h060s-45.999m will be filtered to 3356.5d45.999m4060s and converted to decimal 118.39461º position on a 360º full circle.
- Using very big numbers or many digits after the decimal point will make the calculations less precise... Do not blame us after your attempt at taking over the galaxy failed because your battle star bases weren't positioned precisely on the galaxy's rim around the galactic core!
- If you are using an HTML 5 capable browser, you will see a graphical
representation of the pattern at the top of the page. if your browser is not
HTML 5 capable, you will see an image describing the data that needs to be
entered in the four fields below.
- The graphical representation of the bolt circle pattern resizes automatically to the width of your browser window.
- After clicking the "Compute" button...
- The "Hole position data" list shows; The number of the hole, The X and Y positions relative to the origin.
The angle relative to 0º to the right and centered with the origin for each hole.
- The "NC format listing" list shows an ASCII formatted list that is compatible with most CNC controls. No NC preparatory code is generated, only comment describing the data entered in the
four input fields. The N word describes the hole number the X and Y words describe the coordinated relative to the origin.
- The radio buttons marked from 1 to 5 affect the decimal precision of the numbers in the
two generated list. Selecting radio button "1", rounds off the number to one
decimal precision. Selecting radio button "2', to two decimal places and so
on...
- Using the Forums:
- 1- To create a new account or login into the forum section on the site you must be connected over SSL, https://, port 443. Trying to log in or create a new account over regular http://, port 80, will result in an “access denied” message. Either; change http:// to https:// in the address bar of your browser or go back to a page containing the “main menu” and click the “forums” link.
- 2- Using the forums section of the site over http://, port 80 is limited to reading the forums and posting to the guest topic.
- 3- The forums section is completely separate from the rest of “theoreticalMachinist.com” main site. The account you use there is limited to the forums section only and has no influence to the kind of access you have on the rest of the site.
- 4- Please refer to the help pages in the forums section of the site for further assistance on its usage.
- Browser compatibility:
- 1- TheoreticalMachinist.com is tested and best viewed on newer browsers with JavaScript enabled. (Browsers who are currently implementing HTML5 compatibility is what I consider a “newer browser”).
- a. Microsoft Internet explorer v9+
- b. Mozilla Firefox v3.5+
- c. Google chrome
- d. Apple Safari v4+
- e. Opera software Opera v9.6+
- 2- The site is not optimized for older browsers or mobile devices. The display of the content will vary depending on the device that is used to view the site. TheoreticalMachinist.com uses HTML 5 in a limited fashion. Older browsers can still be used to view the content of the site but the displaying of some elements is unpredictable. There are no plans on making the site fully compatible with older browser technology.
- Internet protocols used:
- 1- Common web port 80 http:// is the preferred way of accessing “TheoreticalMachinist.com” main site. It is also used to; read the forums and posting to the guest section only.
- 2- SSL, https://, port 443, is mandatory for creating an account or login into the forums section of the site to fully participate in the discussions.
- 3- SSL, https://, port 443, is available for secure browsing of the site.
Last Updated: 16 February 2012