Hi guys I have a question about drag knives. I am in the process of building a Workbee and among a lot of other things, I will be cutting wood veneer, very thin slate veneer (0.3-0.5mm slate on 0.5mm cotton & glue backing) and leather and probably some vinyl as well. After some research, I realised that the typical vinyl knife won't cut it with thicker materials like leather (up to 3.5mm). The only solution I came across consistently that seems to be capable of dealing with my rather diverse requirements was the Donek drag knife. It appears very well established, there is a lot of experience in integrating it into Vectric SW (which I am using) and it has aides to adjust the g-codes to cater for the directional moves that are very specific. There is only a little catch - it is very expensive, roughly about £230 if I purchase it from a UK dealer and about $294 if I buy it directly in the US. My questions: Has anybody in this forum used a Donek knife? What materials did you cut? What were the experiences? What tools did you use to adjust the g-codes for the directional changes? Are there alternatives with similar capabilities that are cheaper? Thanks very much for any feedback. Cheers Phil
Hello Phil, hit up Brain for his Drag Knife files "Here". Cheaper then a good cup of coffee and free to make if you have the right scrap . It is one of the projects I want to get to this year myself. I mostly want it for cutting leather and custom boxes / packaging. He has a series of videos on how to make it as well.
Hi Kyo great feedback, thanks. Do you know how you have to adapt the g-codes with this knife? Do you do it in the same way as you would do it with a Donek? Is the geometry the same as a Donek?
on the Donek web site Add Corner Actions to your Tool Path - Donek Tools is a link to an excel spreadsheet that can add the corners for you to any simple Gcode. make sure your gcode has no arcs in it.
Free cnc router software downloads for our Drag Knife It was under the software tab on the donektools.com website.
the bCNC GUI for GRBL can also do it, in the tools section. Note that you can use that tool to add the drag knife corners and save the Gcode, then load that into OpenbuildSCONTROL to run your machine as usual, so no need to completely switch interfaces.
OpenBuilds CAM Gcode Creator - Public Beta also has a Dragknife option under the Toolpaths - with swivel cornering action
Thanks y'all. I have a call today with the Donek guy to work this out-- probably first step is to fine tune the blade offset. I appreciate it. Cheers.
