teacherben

I just bought 1600 Citiblocs for my school, sold on the claims of absolute precision manufacturing and it turns out they aren't so perfect after all. In just about any handful of planks you can easily see differences. Good on you for making them yourself.

It cuts very smoothly--surprisingly cleanly, particularly with more rigid material. PP plastic sheets came out great. Thin wood (a lot of tongue depressors) very clean. Dry flat cardboard is great. But if your cardboard is coming from a box that has been dented and kicked around a bit or absorbed moisture, it might tear a bit. I'm in Singapore so the cardboard absorbs some moisture and gets a bit mushy... it feels dry to the touch but isn't as rigid. That's not so good to cut and can actually clog up the nibbler.

The maximum thickness is 3mm. The cutter is 6mm wide. So a 30mm piece of material cut in half will give you two 12mm pieces.

You will want the nibbler to just barely poke up and I think you wouldn't want any gap around it. I wouldn't go buying a router table for this... If you have one, maybe take a look. This build only took a couple hours though and there are lots of ways to include the kids in the process. Makes for a nice family activity on a weekend afternoon. Let me know if you try.

I need to experiment to work out how high we can go before it gets wobbly. I started with an 18cm prototype and the 3 teachers so far chose to stick with the same measurements.

Please do.