The ✨ GEN's → Helical flight tool makes the spiral ribbon of an auger (a screw conveyor flight, or an Archimedes-screw blade) — shaftless, with no solid core. The preview shows the finished flight as a solid, with the waste already removed.
How a hot wire makes it
The flight is exactly the foam trapped between two helicoid surfaces offset along the axis by the flight thickness. You cut the top helicoid, cut the bottom one, and the bulk above and below lifts (unscrews) away, leaving the ribbon. That works because there is no shaft: a straight wire passes clean through the centre, so it can't leave a solid core standing — see why a true screw isn't hot-wire-cuttable.
The metrics
- Outer Ø — the outside diameter of the flight.
- Bore Ø — the inner-edge diameter of the ribbon (the hole down the middle). 0 = the flight runs to the centre.
- Pitch — axial rise per full turn.
- Turns — how many full turns; total length =
pitch × turns. - Flight thickness — the gap between the two helicoid cuts (how thick the ribbon is).
- Hand — right- or left-handed spiral.
What you can make
Archimedes-screw water lifts (the classic STEM demo), conveyor / auger flights for moving grain, snow or plastic, mixer and extruder ribbons, and decorative spirals. Foam makes a perfect lightweight pattern or a casting core.
Experimental — read this
- The finished solid is real — the preview is the actual flight geometry with the waste removed.
- The toolpath is β. The two synchronised helicoid passes export as coordinated
A-axis G-code, but the exact mapping to your machine needs checking on the rig before you cut real foam. - A full-diameter wire makes a double flight (two ribbons 180° apart). The generator shows a single flight for clarity.
Related
See screws, augers & the ruled-surface limit for why the shaft can't be cut, and rotation axis & indexed cuts for the rotary machinery.