Xacto Blade Tower

thingiverse

Here is a design for holding an Xacto blade at various heights. It's main purpose was made for work in clay, but you could adapt it for use with slicing other material, or marking things with a knife I suppose. Things to keep in mind: * I made this for an Xacto knife that I own. It's a tight fit. I used digital calipers to design this which were a big help. * The diameter of my knife is 9mm, so I made it a 9.25mm diameter because that is my printer tolerance to get it snug for 9mm (refer to pictures for exact measurements I took in Rhino for the design). * You will want to print the test piece, or segment of the test piece before printing the tower (you can sink it into the bed a little more if you wish to speed it up). Take note of any scale changes you have made to the test piece and write that down. * The test piece is an exact slice of the original file. * If you make any change in scale to the tower that holds the blade portion, you will need to make the same scale change to the holder. Don't forget to do that or else it will not fit. * I left a .5mm gap on all sides of the holder, which gives a total of 1mm for left/right and top/bottom spacing. * This design needs no supports at all anywhere. Print the tower on its side. The stand can be flat. Toss some strong glue or super glue after doing a test fit with it. Done. * The spacing of the cuts is ~12mm. This is the closest I could get the inserts to sit where it felt strong enough between each snap in segment. * I printed this on a 310mmx310mm Ultrabase glass bed. It's pretty close but there's room for slight change in scale if you need to increase it. * I printed with 25% infill, 0.2mm layer height using a 0.4mm nozzle. My wall/perimeter count was 4 walls everywhere. Wait, I can make this text easier to read: Here is the rewritten text: I designed a holder for an Xacto blade that can be adjusted to various heights. The primary purpose of this design was to hold an Xacto knife for work in clay. However, you can adapt it for use with slicing other materials or marking things with a knife. Things to keep in mind when using this design: I made this design specifically for my own 9mm Xacto knife, which fits snugly inside the holder. I used digital calipers to help me create an accurate design. The diameter of my knife is 9mm, so I designed the holder with a 9.25mm diameter to account for printer tolerance. Before printing the tower that holds the blade, you should print a test piece or segment of the test piece. This will allow you to check for any scale changes and make sure everything fits properly. Take note of any adjustments you need to make and write them down. If you change the scale of the tower that holds the blade portion, you must also adjust the holder accordingly. I left a 0.5mm gap on all sides of the holder to ensure it fits securely in place. This design requires no supports at all, so you can print the tower on its side and the stand flat. Simply apply some strong glue or super glue after doing a test fit with it, and you're done. The spacing between the cuts is approximately 12mm. This allows the inserts to sit firmly in place without feeling too loose or too tight. I printed this design on a 310mm x 310mm Ultrabase glass bed, which provides a good balance of size and adjustability. If you need to increase the scale, there's room for slight adjustments. To print this design, I used the following settings: 25% infill, 0.2mm layer height, and a 0.4mm nozzle. My wall/perimeter count was set to four walls everywhere.