Donek Tools Drag Knife

[David Iannone]

Video of the knife cutting out custom boxes for mags and graphics I ship.
http://youtu.be/NxnOr7CSMD8

I forgot and started the Bot running without turning on the vac hold down....lol Its tough trying to film and use the keyboard at the same time.

So far all I have done is cut boxes with it using the box cutting SB program that came with it. It is SUPER EASY to use. In my opinion if I only cut my own boxes with the tool its worth the money. And now when my customer gets their graphics delivered in a perfect sized box with my logo on it.....well....company image means a lot. And now I look like I know what the heck i'm doing.........:D

Next I have to learn how to do some setting up cut files in Aspire to do some custom stuff. I have 2 sheets of polystyrene coming in tomorrow that are going to get put on the Bot and cut into 10"x7" pieces for the signs I sell on ebay. No more ruler, stabilo, and xacto.

Time is money and with this tool I will save about 20 minutes per sheet to cut my blanks.

I am going to cut some custom shaped sign shapes out of coro too.

I used to fly RC Airplanes years ago. Am thinking of trying to build a rc plane out of coro or foam board and mount my old electronics on board and see if I can get it to fly.....seriously


Dave

[chiloquinruss]

What software are you using on your machine? Aspire? Russ

[David Iannone]

Hi Russ,
I'm using Aspire 8. But haven't even played with the knife in Aspire yet. But as I understand there is a Vectric gadget made for drag knifes to allow for the swivel/turn action to change direction. I have 2- 4x8 sheets of polystyrene I am going to cut out as soon as I can get to it. Just landed a big job yesterday afternoon that has me swamped at the moment. (Full vehicle wrap on a van) Will have wrap complete by Sat. So maybe Sunday will have time to cut some more stuff.

For the boxes above I used a custom SB file Sean wrote that when you open it, it just asks you dimensions and which way to cut (along x or y axis) and off she goes. It is a free download on his website.

I know I am WAY behind the curve on this, as the tool has been out for a while and tons of people are doing the same thing as me, just wanted to make sure any other sign guys (or others that haven't seen the tool) understand how valuable it can be to their production.

Dave

[knight_toolworks]

I have not tried cutting coro with the knife but it cuts well with a O-flute I can cut 1/2" that way at 3ips thogh the bit needs to be sharp to get a clean cut usually new.

[Ken Sully]

David,
Glad you had the audio on when you ran the cut. This gives me an idea of how loud the vacuum is. Doesn't seem bad what do you think by now? I assume you have 2 running.
Ken

[David Iannone]

Steve, I could never get coro to cut as clean as I liked no matter what I did. But of course it could have been bad operator and bad bit selection. I am able to cut 4mm Coro in one pass with the knife no problem.

Ken, Yeah, two running. One does almost nothing, but both motors running really holds anything I have put on the table so far......but I'm just a sign guy so the materials so far have been easy cutting stuff and full sheets easy to hold down. I still have room in the Blue Box to add the second two motors if needed.

So far Max 95 decibels on my iphone app (right next to the vac box). But I wear hearing protection when in the room while its running.

Also, I haven't run the vac hold down for long amounts of time yet. Just quick and easy stuff so far, but today I ran it for 20 minutes and the temp off the motors was 120 degrees. I think I will leave my bleeder valve set where it is for now. Was pulling 6 hg and never dropped as I cut through material into the spoil board. I have been watching my vac gauge like a hawk every job so far. The system is working very good. Today was cutting letters out of a full 4'x8' sheet of 3mm Sintra with an .125 onsrud bit.

Dave

[kenkelsey]

[QUOTE=David Iannone;177869]Steve, I could never get coro to cut as clean as I liked no matter what I did. But of course it could have been bad operator and bad bit selection. I am able to cut 4mm Coro in one pass with the knife no problem.

Ken, Yeah, two running. One does almost nothing, but both motors running really holds anything I have put on the table so far......but I'm just a sign guy so the materials so far have been easy cutting stuff and full sheets easy to hold down. I still have room in the Blue Box to add the second two motors if needed.

I have the two vac motor open source box running with about 7 hg with all valves closed and 6 hg when cutting with about 50% of the cutting zone covered with material. I have 6 zones on my table. I'm also a sign guy and I have experimented with aluminum, HDU, Plywood and Styrene with great hold down power.

Running long jobs I have seen temperatures of 180 to 190 degrees with a sensor right on the motor. Agree no hold down power available using only one vac motor. Noise level very high and with the dust collector also running it is impossible to tell if the Spindle has actually starts spinning when I press the start button. Came close to breaking bits at east twice starting to route with the spindle not spinning. Love the vac system. How great it is to eliminate clamps, screws and double sided tape.