Geometry wizards?

[Ken]

Hi Folks.
I am tasked with applying reflective material to various sizes of traffic cones. You see them all the time with flagging crews, construction sites etc. The reflective material is wrapped around the cone (I would like to have a bit of an overlap). How do you lay this out for cutting on a plotter?
Anyone been there...done that?
Thanks.
Ken

 

[Gino]

Instead of taxing your mind, just take a piece of paper, wrap it around, cut it back to where you want it, take it back off and scan the shape.

 

[Ken]

HYbrid solution...?

I haven't cut it out yet, but this is what I have so far. I took Gino's advice to determine some of the dimensions then using some node editing created this layout in Coreldraw. I think it still needs some tweaking.
Thanks Gino.

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

I haven't cut it out yet, but this is what I have so far. I took Gino's advice to determine some of the dimensions then using some node editing created this layout in Coreldraw. I think it still needs some tweaking.
Thanks Gino.

I actually had a bunch of different sized tapered buckets that I had to make labels that wrapped around and overlapped. Took a bit of trig and lots of google searching but I came up with an excel spreadsheet that I was able to put in the diameter at the top of the bucket, the diameter at the bottom of the bucket and the height of the label and it gave me dimensions to plug into an illustrator template that I came up with that allowed me to warp the artwork to. I used static cling to test my cuts to make it easier to apply and remove, and got amazing results. If you need me to dig those out, I can do that... but if Gino's technique works for a one-off, Go for it. It would take some time to walk you through the process using my way.

 

[Doc Savage]

At our shop we usually use this calculator to figure it out. Of course we have to figure out all the info needed to input into that program

 

[rjssigns]

There is a way to do it manually at a drafting table, but this is easier: http://sheetmetalworld.com/sheet-me...961-learn-how-to-layout-a-cone-in-sheet-metal

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

There is a way to do it manually at a drafting table, but this is easier: http://sheetmetalworld.com/sheet-me...961-learn-how-to-layout-a-cone-in-sheet-metal

+1 to this... I think I used this to make the excel sheet with all the values I needed.