Tex, As you'll see at the end of my article, I did point out that you can turn these dials into VDE or VDW dials - but then you only need half the portion of the cycloid I drew. I believe you can develop the gnomon so that it does not lie in a plane - but I don't think the usable portion would be much of a helix. Certainly no curly-cues - only a little curve.
Fred
