[net.puzzle] Rouleaux drill

ph@wudma.UUCP (04/08/85)

	A few weeks ago I posted a request for someone out there more
	mechanically inclined than I to explain how the Rouleaux drill
	bit (the one that drills square holes) was driven, since it
	didn't rotate around a fixed axis.  Unhappily all I have
	received in reply is one one-sentence message saying, "Use an
	eccentric chuck and a square template." (I have since lost the
	actual message, so I'm afraid I can't address the poster
	directly.)

	Well.  The use of the template had already been discussed in
	previous messages on the subject, but I must admit to some
	confusion about the eccentric chuck.  If by that you mean a
	chuck which is off-center, surely this would not work; the bit
	would still rotate about a fixed axis, just not the one which is
	its center.  You would end up making a somewhat larger but still
	round hole.  If, on the other hand, you mean the device which I
	have heard called a "free-floating chuck", that's fine but it
	still leaves me in the dark as to how the widget works.

	So once again may I request that someone please explain just how
	it is this magic device works?  Thanks.

						--pH

	P.S.	I apologize in advance for requesting information on a
	subject which really needs diagrams for proper discussion.

gjerawlins@watdaisy.UUCP (Gregory J.E. Rawlins) (04/11/85)

In article <233@wudma.UUCP> ph@wudma.UUCP writes:
>	So once again may I request that someone please explain just how
>	it is this magic device works?  Thanks.
>						--pH
	The drill was described in Martin Gardener's Mathematical
Recreations column in the February 1963 edition of Scientific
American. If you need further information he give the patent
numbers for the device.
	greg.
-- 
Gregory Rawlins CS Dept.,U.Waterloo,Waterloo,Ont.N2L3G1 (519)884-3852
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