Improve Your Circle Cutter

[Bomarc]

Originally Posted by Gil

One question (if you don't mind) is how thin can you cut rim like structures? This is more a test of the cutter than anything else but it would definitely put icing on the cake...

Played around a bit and found that while I could cut small rings, they weren't very clean. I did a lot, and realized that the closer the blade got to the pin, the more stress was put on that 30 degree angle blade, and it was dragging quite a bit, if it didn't break altogether, probably why the manufacturer stopped travel of the blade where they did. Then the light bulb came on, and I snapped off the point of a fresh No. 11 X-Axto blade:



I set the blade so just enough of the point was exposed past the plane of the cutter. Also tried to keep the point in the center of the holder as much as I could:



That seemed to do the trick. I could cut rings fairly accurately, and I didn't break the point either. These were done with 65lb cover stock:



Those are half inch squares on my cutting mat. Needs a light touch, and a lot of practice, but it's doable. Clamping the material down so it doesn't move helps too, as it allows you to concentrate on working the tool. It also allows the use of the same point hole made in the mat to cut concentric circles.

Mike

[Tapcho]

I've manged so far without one but this aricle changed my mind. Circles I've been able to nibble with scissors but rims are a bit challenge to me even with a new sharp blade - at least in cases when you need many and want them small. This modification seems doable and I ordered mine yesterday. Thanks Mike.

BR Tappi

[Kevin WS]

Hmmm. I'm convinced to and now I am thinking of ordering one.

One question - do the blades have to be specially ordered or are they "common"?

[Bomarc]

Originally Posted by Kevin WS

One question - do the blades have to be specially ordered or are they "common"?

The cutter uses it's own style of blade (IIRC it comes with 5 spares in a storage compartment built into the cutter's body) but the blade is very similar to the break away blades that come with 30 degree angle blade craft knifes. I use a Tajima stainless steel knife for my general building, and found that blades snapped from that fit this circle cutter. However, as related in my post above, that style of blade is a bit over taxed when the circle radius gets to be small (less than 3/8"), so I'm now using broken X-Acto blades as illustrated above for small circle cutting.

Mike

[lancer525]

Sheer Genius! This little dandy may just turn out to be the next piece of vastly important, critically needed, and irreplaceable equipment on my worktable yet! 9.5 from the East German Judge... :D

[Bomarc]

Originally Posted by lancer525

..... 9.5 from the East German Judge... :D

Not bad...those guys are always hard to impress...

Mike

[Kevin WS]

Bomarc - thanks

[bpgeygolpher]

This thread provides some very good information. Does anyone have copies of the pictures that were originally included?

I tried to PM the originator be he is not taking any messages.

Thanks,

Paul

[rickstef]

Unfortunately, the pictures were hosted on photobucket, and some years ago Bomarc forgot to pay the storage fee, and they "trimmed" the amount of pictures he had, so there will be many of his threads with picture holes in them

[bpgeygolpher]

Thank you for that information.

For future reference, is there a way to copy/download an entire thread, including any attachments/pictures?

I saved the link to this thread which is how I found out the pictures were missing. Could I have saved all the thread data, including the pictures, to my PC?

Paul