Cork End Cutter Slicer Jigs

thingiverse

We’ve used cork halves for several projects along the way and I made a quick little push jig for the bandsaw a couple years ago. It sure worked better than previous wood and clamp jig contraptions I always came up with. When cleaning up after the last project my vacuum ate my printed push jig. Ok… FF… thinking about another half cork project and I run across the Cork Guillotine https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2101021 by duwke. I discovered, long ago, that a razor blade made a good cork end cutting tool so I printed the Guillotine in a green PETG that I had loaded. Sanding by hand proved way too much effort, power tools helped speed things up getting to a smooth plunger action. Anyway, good thing I used 3 parameters to have some sanding depth and now it works great! Now I had a bunch of end cuts to do in 3 end-cut sizes; 2-3mm slice, about 8mm for filler and 11mm half hight. So I made a quick little cutting jig for each depth. They made end cuts easy and quick. Not perfect however; because I had to put a finger on the blade ends to keep in place when twisting a cork against the blade for a clean cut. I think the only way to really fix that is to make a little pocket for the blade end to set in. While improvements would be a typical next step, I now have the only set of cutters I’ll probably ever need. So, I call first sketch print close enough to done and have no plans to make the files better or safer. Printed flared end on bed (vertical) without supports or raft. CAUTION: this is not a safety device! Print at your own risk! If you have no experience working with a razor blade, don’t go discovering cut fingers for the first time using these simple jig files. I print in PETG and seldom have bonding or part separation/strength issue, however pay attention to your resulting strength of print and stresses imposed during use. Keep your fingers away from the blade and think about what would happen if something did break/separate!