created 19/10/25
Micro-Guillotine
The micro-guillotine was constructed around a part-machined
cast-iron blank for a staking tool I found on ebay. Originally, I
intended to fabricate all parts from steel, but I could not obtain
a suitable blank for the rotating table and neither had the right
steel bars in stock. So, for the time being at least, the parts
were fabricated from 3 mm ABS sheet that I happened to have.
The cutting blade is a shortened chisel-shaped scalpel-blade. It
is set into an exactly fitting slot in the 6 mm steel runner and
secured with a steel ring. The knob on the runner is an old
bakelite instrument knob. The 6 mm wide blade restricts the
cutting capacity to 3 mm for 90° cuts and correspondingly less for
cuts at an angle. This is a conscientious restriction, as this
tool is really meant to only cut parts up to 2 mm by 2 mm
cross-section.
To cut at an angle, the plate is turned, rather than the cutter as
in other designs. The narrow gap between the guides ensures that
also very small parts can be cut. Their length can be set by the
adjustable brass stop.
