I'm constantly looking for a slim / thing blade that will stay sharp for my leather projects. Leather can dull any blade very fast. One of the best for this is the X-Acto knife. It has all the benefits above described and its cheap to replace so i can use one or more for each project without stopping to sharpen. The only thing i don't like is the standard handle / holder it comes with. Also there is a matter or proper size and shape based on the way i hold and cut, specially when doing circles or arcs.

Step 1: The Problem

I have made and bought a great deal of tools over the past year, but none of them have all the things i need, so i decided to make something about that.

Step 2: Design

After sketching some ideas in my head, i had a much clear understanding in what i needed to do. So i fired up Rhino and began drawing.

1- measure the A-Xcto blade including its inner oval hole.

2- decide the length and shape i wanted

3- find the best location for the top cap based on the screws i had on hand, this being m3

Above you'll find the CAD image for the 2 parts. Advise: When designing always consider the type of machine and bits you have available.

Step 3: Manufacture

Once the design was done i went ahead and loaded the file into my CAM software.

Here i created the following operations:

1- A pocket operation to clear the space where the back end of the blade with the oval will fit into.

2- Another pocket operation to just mark the location where the thread will be

3 - A pocket operation for the screw heads

4 - An outside mill operation to cut the perimeter

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bits used:

Bits&Bits Taper Bit: http://tiny.cc/23hz6y
$8 Amana Bit for Aluminum: https://amzn.to/2VSMxQj

------------------------------------------------------------------------

From the above images you will find the way im holding my stock piece to the OpenBuilds MiniMill. I have done this "trick" a great amount of times without ever having problems. This is by far the easiest way and it goes like this:

Add "Blue" painters tape to your spoil-board, making sure it will cover the whole surface of your stock piece. Apple tape also to the back face of your stock, the just apply any good looking pattern of CA glue to the tape on the spoil-bard for then to place your stock piece on top of the CA glue and let it dry ( if you have CA accelerator thats even better ). Your piece is now well secured to the bed and will stay like that. At the end you just need to pull the tape up fro, the bed and from your piece.

Note that in my operation i have not set up any tabs, the painters tape adhesive will make sure the part stays put. BEWARE if you machine is not ridid enough or has deflection, once the operation reaches the last pass it can release the part from the tape.

From here i just ran all the operations and in a matter of minutes had my parts ready.