So I need to design a cylindrical cam (aka barrel cam I think). I'm an aerospace engineer so I've never had a course on cams/gear design (wish I had though). Is there a general equation for the curve (path) on a cylindrical cam of known radius?
Here's a picture of my application; it's basically like a fishing reel. I need to use it to wind thread from a bigger spool to a smaller spool that will work on my sewing machine. The top rod with the purple thing is the input and the black thing is a rubber belt that turns the green drum. The green drum is the part I need to have a cam path on so that it moves the red arm. Any help or pointing to references is greatly appreciated!