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boredzo/Enhanced paper trimmer project.md

Last active May 21, 2023 17:24
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Enhanced paper trimmer project plan (untested, this is just a braindump)
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Enhanced paper trimmer project.md

Enhanced paper trimmer project plan

The Project I'm Not Doing

This project, if I were to do it, would hopefully improve a paper trimmer's ability to deliver consistent, precise cuts to specific measurements.

I developed the urge to do this project after using my existing paper trimmer in the making of my postcards, which came out about the right size but with some variation. I think having hard stops rather than just grid lines might help solve the variation problem.

I don't really have the time or the severity of need to do this project, but it would be nice, so my brain has been hung up on it and I've been researching the heck out of it despite my conscious preference to not do the project.

Hopefully braindumping into this document will be the final step and I won't have to think about it again, at least until the next time I'm unhappy with what comes out of my paper trimmer.

The core of the project

When you use a paper trimmer to cut paper, you're either following crop marks or similar markings or you're cutting to specified measurements. (Often both, once you've lopped all the crop marks off and have only the last edge to go.) Paper trimmers typically provide a plane marked with a grid in half-inches or something, for you to measure the desired dimensions behind the blade.

This project is to add the option to set hard stops to make the grid lines more than mere suggestions.

On a wooden paper trimmer, drill holes at the southwest corner of each intersection of grid lines:

    │
────┼──
   O│
    │

The circumference of each hole should just touch the adjoining grid lines.

Each hole is then a receptacle for a metal dowel pin. At least two dowel pins, one or more along the left measurement and one or more along the bottom (together with the upper edge), form a fence against which paper can be squared up. The left edge in particular would be vital for precise, repeatable cuts.

Consistent high precision in positioning the holes would be crucial. A pin that's too far left (or down) could be a non-contributing outlier in a fence made of multiple pins. Worse, a pin that's too far right (or up) obtrudes into where the paper is supposed to be.

Parts

Workpieces

Parts

  • 1/8-inch-diameter dowel pins: https://www.mcmaster.com/dowel-pins/dowel-pins-7/length~3-4-2/diameter~1-8/length~1/
    • Not really sure what length I want. Probably an inch?
    • More depth minimizes wobble
    • I don't want to drill the hole too deep, lest it go through—pins need to rest in the holes
    • Also the pins need to stick up above the plane, partly to be the fence against the paper, but also so I can pull the pins out by hand
    • The thickness of the paper cutter's grid plane is a factor; I think it's about half an inch on the Ingento, which means I'd want to go down like 3/8 or 7/16 of an inch in order to get as deep as possible without going through.
      • 2023 update: It's 3/4 inch, so I could theoretically get 1-inch pins and let them sit 4/8 to 5/8-inch down.

Tooling

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