Travis Johnson
Member
- Messages
- 2,369
I have had some time lately and so I have been diligently working in my shop. That is indeed rare, but I have been making progress. I started a slitter awhile back, but put it down when things went south and just recently took up the challenge. I am proud to say I got everything fabricated yesterday.
Its made of Maple, with all the wear surfaces stainless steel. Since I used 1/4 inch plate, the slitter has a very solid feel to it. No pressing down on this guy, and naturally all that stainless, from screw heads to wear bars are all polished to a mirror!
But I think my greatest achievement was the slitter itself. I was not content with a knife. I took a utility knife type jack knife and abused it to no end, scavenging the knife holder and recessing it in the body of the slitter. By using a spring and some threaded rod and threaded inserts, a turn of a knob on the front of the slitter adjusts the utility knife blade from no cut-to a full 1 inch cut...or anything in between. The other great part is, the utility blades can be changed via no-tools. Just click a button and the utility blade can be swapped out.
The only part I got fancy with was on the beam that allows the fence to be adjusted. Its a full 12 inches, but for a wear bar I cut the polished stainless steel in the shape of a tapering arrow. I let the 1/4 inch plate into the beam, but chiseling it out was a pain in the butt! I messed up in one spot and had to fill in with some epoxy, but so far that has been my only semi-noticeable mistake.
Overall its construction came out good. I just need to sand the wooden parts now, apply a stain, and then get some poly on it. I would like to make a case for this too because its more of a presentation tool then an actual tool. I mean i days worth of work would mar all that stainles steel up! But it is designed to work, and with so many moving parts, I am pleased that it even works, let alone works so well.
Its made of Maple, with all the wear surfaces stainless steel. Since I used 1/4 inch plate, the slitter has a very solid feel to it. No pressing down on this guy, and naturally all that stainless, from screw heads to wear bars are all polished to a mirror!
But I think my greatest achievement was the slitter itself. I was not content with a knife. I took a utility knife type jack knife and abused it to no end, scavenging the knife holder and recessing it in the body of the slitter. By using a spring and some threaded rod and threaded inserts, a turn of a knob on the front of the slitter adjusts the utility knife blade from no cut-to a full 1 inch cut...or anything in between. The other great part is, the utility blades can be changed via no-tools. Just click a button and the utility blade can be swapped out.
The only part I got fancy with was on the beam that allows the fence to be adjusted. Its a full 12 inches, but for a wear bar I cut the polished stainless steel in the shape of a tapering arrow. I let the 1/4 inch plate into the beam, but chiseling it out was a pain in the butt! I messed up in one spot and had to fill in with some epoxy, but so far that has been my only semi-noticeable mistake.
Overall its construction came out good. I just need to sand the wooden parts now, apply a stain, and then get some poly on it. I would like to make a case for this too because its more of a presentation tool then an actual tool. I mean i days worth of work would mar all that stainles steel up! But it is designed to work, and with so many moving parts, I am pleased that it even works, let alone works so well.