How to use the chamfer tool in FreeCAD's Part Designworkbench
Contents
- 00:00:24 Creating a chamfer by selecting edges
- 00:02:14 Creating a chamfer around a face by selecting the face
- 00:03:10 Create a chamfer using distance and angle
- 00:04:41 Define a chamfer using two distances
- 00:05:32 Failing to create a proper chamfer even though the tool says it was created
How to use the Chamfer tool in FreeCAD's Part Design Workbench
A Chamfer is a design feature that is used to add decoration to an object, make objects safer for humans, or a combination of both. A chamfer can be thought of as a long triangular solid that will be sliced off the work piece. As a general rule, a chamfer is made at roughly 45 degrees to the edge, with the size determining whether the chamfer is a decorative feature or just being used to remove sharp corners.
Chamfers can be made using a hand plane, a router with a chamfer bit installed, or a combination of both. We typically use chamfers to remove sharp edges from furniture using a hand plane of some sort. Typically this is done using a block plane, but it can also be done with a jack or smoothing plane.
While chamfers are usually made at 45 degrees to the edge, they don't have to be. You're unlikely to create the chamfer at 45 degrees using a hand plane unless you use a 45 degree guide as well. At same scale it doesn't really matter because the chamfer will appear to be 45 degrees to the eye even if it isn't. FreeCAD allows you to create chamfers at different angles by specifying an angle or by specifying the lengths of the short sides of the triangle - the opposite and adjacent sides that we learned about in trigonometry class. Most wood working chamfer router bits are set at 45 degrees so this feature is not all that useful for wood workers, but non-woodworkers can use this feature to make different designs for production in metal, 3D printing, etc.