How to cut blades?

[Jedi Knight Matatabi]

I'm wanting to cut my 36" blade down a bit but I noticed there was some kind of glue holding the inner layer to the blade. Is this something I need to glue back once I cut it?

And also, any particular way to cut the blade?

[sedstiskyfaller]

This thread might be of help:

http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=14057.msg217110#msg217110

[SILVERBACK]

Use a pvc pipe cutter and cut your blade to the desired length. After you cut the blade pull out the film just a few inches and I usually cut it about an inch short of the cut blade and then hot glue the film to the blade. Do not pull the film all of the way out because you risk unraveling it and / or getting dust on it. Do not use any type of saw either because you will get the bits of the blade inside the film and your blade will look like crazy because the bits will stick out like a sore thumb.

[B1ondeange1]

Use a pvc pipe cutter and cut your blade to the desired length. After you cut the blade pull out the film just a few inches and I usually cut it about an inch short of the cut blade and then hot glue the film to the blade. Do not pull the film all of the way out because you risk unraveling it and / or getting dust on it. Do not use any type of saw either because you will get the bits of the blade inside the film and your blade will look like crazy because the bits will stick out like a sore thumb.

as he said. I cut two of mine down the other day from 36" to 28" no probs with a pipe cutter. though I would recommend not pulling the film out that far and cutting off a full inch- I only pulled it out by about 5mm, cut that off with a sharp knife, then carefully pushed it back inside the blade- I discovered there can be a bit of a trick to doing that right (PM me if you want). A bit of hot glue spread around the inside lip where the film is to hold it in place, and you are good to go, easier that I thought it would be.

[B1ondeange1]

So I just sent this via PM to Jedi Knight Matatabi, but figured I would post it here as well. Maybe It'll help someone else when they want to cut their blades Keep in mind this is what I did and found to work, others may have other methods or suggestions.


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Ignore my messy hot gluing, I was tired when I did it and I only had my old damaged hot glue gun which burns the glue making it yellow, couldn't find my new one and I had to get them glued up.



That is the inside of the blade- if you look at your new one (which wont be quite as messy on the gluing) you'll see that they also have a bit of a gap at the bottom of the blade between the blade and the film, it allows them to glue the film in place properly. Your original blade will probably be about 5-10mm (sorry, I don't know the inches conversion, but itll be small) so that's about what I did.

Use the pipe cutter to cut around at the length you want. Do it carefully and slowly, you are better off taking a long time than damaging the blade- coz it makes the blade bend quite a bit where you are cutting it. When you finally break through it, the section you are cutting off will still be attached to the film via the original hot glue- so when you pull that, the film will move out of the main blade (imagine the next picture as still attached, I didn't think to actually take photos as I went).



You can see that about 5mm of the film is sticking out of the offcut. What I did was pull the offcut down to expose that 5mm of film and used a very sharp knife to cut it flush with the main blade plastic - I used one of those box cutters/ safety blade with the trapezoidal shaped replacement blades, and used a fresh blade. Or you could use a snap and cut knife, craft knife, scalpel, scissors, but make sure they are very sharp coz there are A LOT of layers of thin film to get through and it'll take a while, and you don't want to make too big a mess of it!

The first time I attempted this I discovered that it was damn difficult to push the film back inside again- what I did was use the offcut to push it back in, since the offcut film hanging out the end is the same length as the distance you need to push the blade film back in. This was much easier than trying to push it in with my fingers, as all that did was buckle and warp the film without moving it. Then run a bead of hot glue around the inside of the base of the blade, making sure it contacts the film. Since my hot glue gun was buggered and the tip is all ruined anyway, I used the hot tip to smooth it out a little, then added a bit extra glue coz it didn't quite grab all the layers properly the first time.



If you are cutting your blade down a bit and have the space to do so, I would recommend doing a practice run at a longer blade length to get a feel for how to do it, that way if you do stuff it up you've still got the extra to fix it with. I was cutting my blades from 36" to 28" so I had plenty of room to practice on one. I also started with one of my older blades with warped film, coz if I ruined that one it wouldn't matter, I've got plenty of blades. As it was it actually fixed the warping and now you can't tell which was the damaged one

[Racona Nova]

Great tutorial, that might really help me (and others as well) if I decide on cutting my blades. Point awarded ^^

[ObiBldoneKenobi]

any chance we can get the images back?

[Zren Tobas]

Yup. Regular pipe cutter will do, then when that piece is cut off you can slide the cellophane out some and cut to new length. Plus then free blade plug piece bit too I've done this tons of times. Just gotta kinda knife away at the glue until it comes loose enough to slide out you know. There's tons of blade plug tops ideas you can use too then. I plan on using an old cap cover from an old fidget spinner for a blade plug design I have in mind next week so =] I have some old short blade stock pieces left so