How to use CamCalc for cutting Camshafts

As some of you may have seen i've been having trouble cutting a camshaft for my V-Twin Hoglet using the offset method, however with the aid of CamCalc I have found it a bit easier making it how Feeney describes

For those of you who don't know what CamCalc is, all the information is stored here: http://www.modelenginenews.org/design/CamTable.html

It gives a description of each field and what they do and all credit goes to the owner of the programme, i'm simply explaining how best to use it as it doesn't work on web browsers due to it relying on javascript. (many web browsers do not run java).

First you will need to download Java for your machine, don't worry it's nothing sinister or even that big but it's required to run CamCalc. Here is a link: https://java.com/en/download/

Once you have java you can download CamCalc from my shared folders on google (Save it to Documents folder): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ihqst-pbCkQWXgBU96VoMuFLwArkEMek/view?usp=sharing

Open Command prompt or type in CMD into the search toolbar and it will find it for you

First you have to change your folder destination to where CamCalc is downloaded, so for me it was in Documents. Type in (without the colons) 'cd documents'.

Then to run the programme type in the following (I'm using the hoglet cam profile as an example) 'java CamCalc'

Here you can see what order the details need to be entered. Take note that the engine rpm doesn't have any effect on the profile of the camshaft but it won't run unless you enter a figure so just put a guess if you don't know. So for me i had to type in 'java CamCalc 130 .065 .4 .168 500'

Then it will display a table of results

If you wish to export the results into a text file then you will need to type in 'java CamCalc 130 .065 .4 .165 500 >CamShaftTable.txt'

I hope that makes sense! If not please let me know and i'll try to be a bit clearer. I hope you find it useful

Edited By Neil Bottle on 29/01/2018 19:52:10

Edited By Neil Bottle on 29/01/2018 19:53:04

Edited By Neil Bottle on 29/01/2018 19:53:54

Edited By Neil Bottle on 29/01/2018 19:54:15

Many thanks for showing us how to get Ron Chernich's implementation of CamCalc running again. Just a couple of pointers for people like me who had forgotten how to deal with the command prompt:

1. In Windows 10 the easy way to get the CMD window to pop up is to right click on the Windows icon in the very left hand bottom of the screen and select Command Prompt.

2. The CMD window needs the full directory string for CamCalc starting with C: (or which ever disk you are using). The easy way to find this in File Explorer is to find the directory with the CamCalc.class file in and then left click on the file icon. This should highlight the full string and this can be copied and pasted to the CMD line after typing cd [space].

I hope this helps and thanks for helping to prolong the life of this old program .

Cheers,

Rod

I'm building the Jerry Howell V4 4 stroke engine and it's time to machine the cams.I've followed Neil's post above and have CamCalc installed on my Win 7 PC.

The Cam details are :

Inlet cam
Cam angle; 128*
Valve lift : .075”
Flank rad: .562”
Base rad: .1375
Speed: 1000

Exhaust cam
Cam angle; 135*
Valve lift : .075”
Flank rad: .562”
Base rad: .1375
Speed: 1000

when I enter :

C:\users\ian\documents>java CamCalc 128 .075 .562 .1375 1000

CanCalc produces a table of results in 2* increments I really would like 1^ increments but can't work out the command line ( I get invalid argument response)

Not sure if Neil will see this but maybe Rod could help.

Thank You Ian

I think you need to add -a1 to the end of your command line, separated from the 1000 with a space.

DC31K.

Thanks for that, Yes you are correct that works ( I had tried but used _ instead of - )

command line

> java CamCalc 128 .075 .562 .1375 1000 -a1

Ian