Cutting the slot by hand without a drill bit
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:57 am
I've been hand cutting stems for awhile and I've never been to happy about using a drill bit to smear open the airway. In the end it comes out ok, but it always seems to be thicker then I would like. Just for kicks, I tried to just the slot by hand.
I used the dremel saw bit to give myself a guide. This is nothing new, I used this as a guide when using a drill bit to smear the opening. A few weeks back I had made a tool that Jeff had in one of his video blogs. It's a sawzall blade that has been ground down to a point at the tip. He used this to clean up the slot when he was done drilling.
Well, I decided to try to cut the slot with this blade tool figuring I would not get anywhere. Getting it started was a little bit of a pain but I managed to get a perfectly straight slot that needed next to no work when I was done. The only issue was that the slot was a tad smaller then the 1/16 bit I used to drill through it. That was easily fixed with a file.
I just thought I'd share this will you guys. It worked beautifully and it took about the same amount of time with better results. I had been working on a stem slotting tool and have decided to chuck the idea and stick with cutting it by hand.
I'll try and get some photos up.
I used the dremel saw bit to give myself a guide. This is nothing new, I used this as a guide when using a drill bit to smear the opening. A few weeks back I had made a tool that Jeff had in one of his video blogs. It's a sawzall blade that has been ground down to a point at the tip. He used this to clean up the slot when he was done drilling.
Well, I decided to try to cut the slot with this blade tool figuring I would not get anywhere. Getting it started was a little bit of a pain but I managed to get a perfectly straight slot that needed next to no work when I was done. The only issue was that the slot was a tad smaller then the 1/16 bit I used to drill through it. That was easily fixed with a file.
I just thought I'd share this will you guys. It worked beautifully and it took about the same amount of time with better results. I had been working on a stem slotting tool and have decided to chuck the idea and stick with cutting it by hand.
I'll try and get some photos up.