Just thought I would do a post on my trial and errors of making a drag knife
I know this subject has been covered many times before on a lot of media
platforms. but this one is quite unique especially if you are contemplating making your own..
I was interested in buying one from Donek tools but after looking at there dimensions
I would have struggled to fit to my 6040, cnc due to limited Z clearance and shaft size.
My only option was to make my own, knowing the internet is full of variations of the donek drag knife. But alas all the plans I came across were very similar in size.
So to work I went, I dug out a old unused Stanley blade from my tool box and set about getting the correct measurements using my vernier, I used Vectric aspire
to create the profiles and went ahead and made one..
Here's the result, But this is also where the hard fought journey began, more to follow..
So following on from my last post, whilst using the Drag knife to cut out some cardboard box templates I noticed the blade was starting to dull, so time to order
some new ones.
Once they arrived I tried fitting one, but to my surprise the Stanley blade would not fit
I paired up both my old blade & the new one only to notice that the Stanley logo and the dimensions had changed, I then got in touch with Stanley tools and asked if they had made any alterations to there blades, and they confirmed they had. Gutted!
This meant I would need to get out the Dremmel to modify the insert, I was not confident in doing this for making it totally unusable, so I decided I would
buy some more aluminium stock and make a new one plus I could make a 2nd
but smaller profile drag knife for more intricate cuts..
Now here's the mad thing, I was looking for a pen to write down my new dimensions
and picked up a sharpie from my draw only to find it had dried out, I then had another
rummage and found another one but noticed this was double ended, a thin and fat tip
a either end, then all of a sudden I had a light bulb moment, then after many countless
failed attempts at making prototypes this is the result…
Nice I tried this method but was not overly happy with the result on fine cuts so i went for the plotter knife in a spindle wiith a round magnet for holding and small bearings inside for the swivle .It is short and sweet a dream for gaskets and decals ,I keep forgetting it was two years ago.