Freezing weather has forced a stop on my backyard fountain project, which happens to be a part of my Roadtest of the Keysight E36731A Battery Emulator. I have been working on firmware for my controller boards for the project, but a last minute change has also forced a stop as I wait for new PCBs.
All these stops in turn led me into cleaning up my office space. In the process, I came across one of less than functional X-Acto knives.
This is a picture of a good knife. Unfortuately, I failed to take a picture of the broken one. What happed with my knife is that overtightening of the blade holder broke the plastic sleeve. I had initially thought that there was a very chance that I would have a suitably size brass tube that I could use for a replacement for the broken black sleeve. Look as I might, I was only able to find a short section of tubing with the correct inside diameter, so I decided to see if there was another approach. It didn't take too long to come up with another solution. I went down to my (cold) shop and looked around for a suitably scrap of wood. Finding a nice piece of maple, I proceeded to rough cut it to shape, leaving me with a 3/4" x 3/4" x 5" rectangle. I then drilled a 3/16" hole through the wood (entering both ends of the block with a 3/16" drill and a self-centering hole guide). Once I was able to have a through hole, I enlarged it to 1/4". I then mounted the block into a 4-jaw chuck of my metal lath and held the other end of the block with a live center (finding neatly into the 1/4" hole). I then proceeded to turn the piece down with a very light taper (0.45" at the blade end and 0.55" at the knurled tightener end). A little cutting and sanding and I was ready to fit it all together.
When it warms up a bit I will stain and finish the handle, but so far, I am pretty happy with the look and feel.
Thanks for reading along,
Gene
