I needed the ability to cut card and self-adhesive vinyl with a knife, so I got one of these - £5.62 on E-bay with 15 knives. Then I needed a holder to attach it to the Z axis. I 3D printed this one to try the idea. It worked successfully but I wasn't sure the thread for the grub screw to hold the knife holder would last so I decided to make an aluminium one. Standard unmodified Ooznest workbee, Makita (actually a Chinese clone), cheap (less than £1 each) router bits, speed 10K rpm, feed 500 mm/min, doc 0.2 mm, finishing path 0.05 mm. This is a bracket to hold a Roland plotter knife holder. I needed to drill and tap a hole for a grubscrew to hold the knife holder which I did in the pillar drill - because of the adjustment on the top of the knife holder it has to go in from above - a plotter pen could go in from below and wouldn't need the grub screw. For a first complete job in aluminium I'm satisfied with the results - not quite the quality I've achieved in the past on a manual milling machine, but fairly good considering the limitations of the workbee/router combination. As this was my first serious attempt cutting aluminium I decided to use some really cheap (router - single and two flute straight) bits and they worked very well. Cutting the rebates with a 1/8" single flute bit the bit didn't even get warm. Cutting the two 5.25mm holes was more of a problem - it was really difficult to clear the chips and the bit overheated on the second hole and snapped - just as it finished the hole! The 11.7mm hole for the knife holder was cut with a 2 flute 1/4" bit and again it hardly got warm. Will post the files if anyone really wants them but it's a pretty straightforward cad job. I've now given away the 3D printed version to someone who is using it as a pen holder. The aluminium block fixes to the Z axis C-beam underneath the router mount and can be left in place if the knife holder itself is taken out. Alex.
Nice! When you get a chance, can we see where it attaches. I bought one of those awhile back and have never got around to mounting it.
As requested, pic of it in situ. Now I just need to work out a way to hold card and self adhesive vinyl down flat. Alex.
hold it flat.... put some MDF on the table, mill some slots in the bottom. turn it over mill a quarter of it away. attach vacuum to the slots. it will hold itself down and hold the paper on top, you just need to make sure that all of the surface is covered, no leaks.
