Hi, Ed (and all)-
My meds are knocking me for a loop and I didn't wake up until now (10:30am EDT)... regardless, the strip-cutting-tool's blades are "crimped" / compressed against the nylon spacers, which provide just enough friction to prevent slipping; I've also used metal washers for thicker hides, as this seems to hold the blades better. I have not tried the double-bolt through the blades, but this makes sense to me -- it prevents rotation around the primary carriage bolt. Also, of key importance, is the nuts on the ends of the primary bolt have to be REALLY cranked down / tightened to hold all in place with as much friction as possible. You can always use 2 nuts at each end, to prevent the first from coming loose, and to somewhat lock the assembly together.
I know that a picture is worth a thousand words, but my wife took the camera with her to take pictrues of the butterflies, moths, and other small creatures in the woods near our home... so here's a "line- art" drawing of how I assembled the tool... if it doesn't come out well, I can hand-sketch things or use a CAD program to produce a printed-then-scanned-back-in picture... Let me know off-list, as I'd immagine the size of the picture to be huge.
First I take a tongue depressor and drill it about 1/2" from the curved end, wide enough to allow the bolt to pass, but not enough to allow the cap-end to pass through. Then, I thread the bolt through
|
|
[-|-------------- At which time, I add a nylon (or metal, if you prefer) spacer, a blade, spacer, blade... etc. ... and end in a spacer
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[-|OvOvOvOvOvO--- (the v is a blade, O is the spacer, | is the tongue depressor)
At this point, I take a second tongue depressor and drill the hole identical to the first one (~1/2inch from the end, etc. ) and thread that through. To cinch and lock things as well as possible, I use a pair of #8 nuts on the end. I haven't had problems except with thick deer hide, and then if I use 3 passes instead of forcing the blades into the hide, it works very well.
| |
| |
[-|OvOvOvOvOvO|xx- (x is a #8 nut, the first of which is cinched with a plyer, then the second is tightened up to and against the first)
At this point, I take a second carriage bolt of similar length and thread it through the other end of the contraption, flanking each tongue-depressor by a nut... again, the picture may turn out horribly, so e-mail me off-list if it doesn't make sense...
[x|x------------------x|x---
| |
| |
[--|OvOvOvOvOvO|xx-
Now what I *have* done in the past is take a piece of thin cardboard (cereal box, etc) and connect it over the top of the device, on the face facing you in the above pictrures, such that the square lies on the tongue depressors and acts as a stop for the blades, should they rotate... plus, it makes a better handle... but it really isn't needed if you have the nuts tightened well enough. If the threads of the "handle" bolt bother your hands, they may be filed off or ground out with a dremmel-style rotary tool, or filled with epoxy or the likes -- just realize that should you wish to change the spacer size on the blade-side bolt, you'll need to slide the handle on very cautiously, retaining the same distance for the tongue-depressors from handle-bolt to blade-bolt.
Wow, this is a novel already - my apologies for taking up the bandwidth, and should anyone else have questions I'm more than willing to help out, but please send off-list to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
... i suspect that the size of my posts will bog down the list.
Thanks and tight lines,
Pete
On 4/14/06, edward s engelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Peter
Question]
What keeps the x-acto blades from turning? Is it the third and fourth
carriage bolt?
Can you send me a pic?
Thank you
Ed Engelman
