Adjustable Cutter
The main issue with all sheet-metal/aluminum machines is hidden gunk buildup. Tobacco makes its way between moving parts, gets smeared between them and sticks. The adjustable cutter holds the cutter up snug against the top of the tobacco chamber with two 1/4 x 1/4" nylon setscrews. Because the cutter is held up and ridding on nylon, friction is minimized and shake can make its way out of the chamber without getting smeared and stuck to the bottom of the cutter. The cutter is also more effective because tobacco no longer gets folded/caught/smeared between the cutting edge and chamber.
P.S. The slots look mangled because the setscrews are homemade from a nylon screw (I couldn't find nylon setscrews locally).
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- Adjustable Cutter
- Posted by scott johnson on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2006
how is this working out? is there a wear problem with the nylon? how long will the screws last, etc?
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I do have access to a machine shop to do this. I have a friend who has his own shop and could do this in a matter of minutes. i have asked him if he can make a stainless steel cutter for the supermatic. he said it would " take a lot of time to cut it out of such a hard material. but it would last forever."
- Re: Adjustable Cutter
- Posted by Dave L on Thursday, 07-Dec-2006
The nylon isn't noticeably wearing. I still have some chamber-top gumming (too many variables at the moment) but otherwise its working out well. I haven't had time to try a tweaked version on a second machine.
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- Re: Adjustable Cutter
- Posted by Dave L on Friday, 02-Mar-2007
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While the new plastic cutter probably trumps this mod I thought I'd post a followup. The new one has been in for two months and there's zero gumming and no wear on the nylon (you can still see the injection seams). The only scratching is where the nylon rides on the chamber floor. The one track is longer because there is a small dent on the bottom of the chamber (the poor mating I've talked about elsewhere and the reason I used to have to clean this machine fairly often).
- Adjustable Cutter
- Posted by Warren on Wednesday, 15-Nov-2006
That cutter mod is not accessible to people without machine shop. I wonder whether one could achieve the same effect by super-gluing a pair of plastic or metal rails (e.g. cut from commonly available household plastic items) at the bottom plate or bottom of the cutter?
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- Re: Adjustable Cutter
- Posted by Captain U-96 aka Mike on Wednesday, 15-Nov-2006
I think you have a good idea; except for taking into account the condition of the surface upon which the plastic is riding. If it's rough--your plastic shims will wear out quickly being unadjustable. Mike
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- Re: Adjustable Cutter
- Posted by Dave L on Friday, 17-Nov-2006
Depending on setscrew availability, its one of the easier mods (drill motor and tap). I've never had much luck gluing plastics and the desired (variable) thickness would be measured in thousandths of an inch... I've got setscrews on the way and after doing a few more I'll see if I can make it accessible via a modest outlay of dinero.
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