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Looking for slitter recommendations

cmoist

New Member
If you are a DIYer here’s a basic design that could be improved upon.
I made the same thing and almost posted it here yesterday. I upgraded to using bearings, etc. It works well enough to slit a few rolls here and there. It would be nice to not have to hold the knife by hand. The whole thing is a good candidate for some 8020 extruded. I think I have about $10 in mine for the pipe plug. The rest I had laying around.
 

JBurton

Signtologist
Two things. I was trying to find either the pair I have, or an image of them, but they make these scissors from two bearings fit right against one another. The pair I had worked on magnetic sheeting, some vinyls, and 1/32" rowmark engraving materials. I was wondering how these would hold up in a traditional laminator, just pushing the material through. Victor's fancy knives would probably work better, but I found these regardless, so here's the worlds coolest safety scissor:
Second, I have been mulling over the idea of a premium pizza slicer that Humble brought up (which I'm sure is just a garbage blade/handle in a fancy package), and I'm like, I just need a thin piece, with a tight bearing, something that would typically spin fast, something stiff.... I present, the most premium diy pizza slicer:
IMG_6182.jpg

It's a HDD platter and bearing, sharpened on a bench grinder, held with a c clamp. Someone tell me how toxic this is.
 

victor bogdanov

Active Member
Two things. I was trying to find either the pair I have, or an image of them, but they make these scissors from two bearings fit right against one another. The pair I had worked on magnetic sheeting, some vinyls, and 1/32" rowmark engraving materials. I was wondering how these would hold up in a traditional laminator, just pushing the material through. Victor's fancy knives would probably work better, but I found these regardless, so here's the worlds coolest safety scissor:
Second, I have been mulling over the idea of a premium pizza slicer that Humble brought up (which I'm sure is just a garbage blade/handle in a fancy package), and I'm like, I just need a thin piece, with a tight bearing, something that would typically spin fast, something stiff.... I present, the most premium diy pizza slicer:
View attachment 166820
It's a HDD platter and bearing, sharpened on a bench grinder, held with a c clamp. Someone tell me how toxic this is.
I have few dead hdd laying around that I was planning on taking apart with my son,
 

Humble PM

Mostly tolerates architects
fotoba or flexa miura , but be ready to spend some $$$

or this for a cheaper version if you can come up with a way to combine it with media feeding/measuring

https://www.lexjet.com/royal-sovereign-electric-trimmers-65in?
Perhaps, an old plotter used purely for the drive control mechanism - I'm assuming that hpgl or similar is an open standard. Fit the drive with sufficient rubber/silicone pinch wheels... Perhaps even incorporate an optical sensor, to read a basic barcode (say a double black line to act as a cut mark...?)
 

victor bogdanov

Active Member
Perhaps, an old plotter used purely for the drive control mechanism - I'm assuming that hpgl or similar is an open standard. Fit the drive with sufficient rubber/silicone pinch wheels... Perhaps even incorporate an optical sensor, to read a basic barcode (say a double black line to act as a cut mark...?)I
I guess could be done with graphtec without any modification, just make a file with two dots at the needed distance, send how ever many copies are needed with auto cross cut between copies
 

Humble PM

Mostly tolerates architects
Actually, for the cross cut, this might not be too complex for someone competent, who has built a cnc machine, and could be made using the guts of a rotatrim (for the cutting head and rails). Ball screw drives X, guts of a lightweight laminator with suitable motor feeds media in Y, optical sensor checks cut mark for sanity.

For a lighter weight feed, back to the lighter weight wheels.

I do not consider myself competent in this matter.
 

ikarasu

Active Member
Perf cut instead of cross and you can have a really nice smooth cut.

My perf cuts on graphtec look like flatbed cuts.... The trick is new blades. I swap my blade daily.... But I also use cheap Chinese blades I get for under a buck.


Paper will dull a knife faster than anything, so perf cutting dulls your blade quickly and that's why the edges look serated and crappy. A brand new blade lasts a full roll almost though, I just swap them out because they're so cheap and I never have to worry about it.


Our cross cutter on our fc9000 is full.... Haven't found a good replacement that doesn't cost 200ish yet.... But it's just for cutting material off of rolls, so we don't care how crappy it cuts.... So long as it cuts.
 

jfiscus

Rap Master
I think this discussion has changed from a slitter, to just cutting stripes? If you're just cutting a lot of long stripes, then you just need a sprocket-fed plotter like a Gerber.
Slitters are for rolls with cores.
 

JBurton

Signtologist
Mine cross cuts pretty cleanly and I haven't changed blade in forever

View attachment 166838
Wild, on 3m vinyl with clear backer, it shows each cut, with the middle being a 1/16" shorter than the rest. Maybe the film is 'stouter' than the paper backed stuff, and each plunge is drawing the material backwards, until the last cut which is not a plunge.
Perf cut instead of cross and you can have a really nice smooth cut.
Doesn't that entail swapping the blade position? That seems super time consuming for a cross cut operation...
 
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