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  • Author Author: genebren
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X-Acto Knife upgrade

genebren

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.

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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.

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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

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  • Here I tend to buy these things (surgical scalpel blades), this is probably the most popular shape, a 'No. 11" blade. 

    They used to be super-low cost (a box of 100 for about £5) but now they are more than 3 times the price. The handles for these are one-piece metal, no collet.

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    This is the classic 1-piece 'No 3' handle, made of steel. This really does last multiple lifetimes, indestructible. Maybe it's available in the US too.

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    There's a larger No. 4 handle for different larger blades so you don't want to get that by mistake (unless you wanted larger blades).. but I think those are for deep + critical surgery!

    This is the retractable handle option from the same manufacturer; it is blue-painted metal, but with plastic insert and might not last forever (I have not damaged mine yet though).:

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  • in reply to shabaz

    I was running out of blades on my current scalpel, so I did a bit of shopping.  I found this deal on eBay (100 blades and handle for $10.49).  I am looking forward to the heft of a metal handle, so hopefully this knife will fit the bill (and my hand).

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  • in reply to genebren

    Hi Gene, That's excellent! That's a very decent price.

    I see you too buy the sterile over the non-sterile. "Just in case" : ) 

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