DIY Soap Cutter and Murphy’s Law...

MunbynSMF
Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
hungryhawaiian

hungryhawaiian

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2019
Messages
146
Reaction score
257
Location
San Jose
IMG_3970.JPG


Ugggghhhh! What should be a quick build (for me) just turned into a few day long project!

Making a 20-22 bar wire cutter but thanks to unreliable parts I had to spend most the day just trying to use my Hawaiian ingenuity to make this work. 4 of the guitar tuning pegs came faulty and were unable to be attached with the fittings provided. That’s where 5-minute epoxy swooped in for the win! Then 2 of my 3 table saws crapped out on me. The 3rd doubles as a work table and has a large marble slab on it. Didn’t wanna take that slab off tonight so I’ll wait til tomorrow. Now I may not finish this project this weekend. But I will not give up!

P.S. Only 12 of the 20 pegs are assembled in this pic.
 
It's going to be a beauty, though, isn't it? ;) I keep toying with the idea of making one (or likely, SO will insist on doing it), but I can't justify it, yet. I bet there's something really satisfying about pulling down on the lever bar and slicing perfectly through umpty-ump bars of soap at once ... but I still can't justify one.

Please return to this thread and post pics when it's done, so I can ooooh and aaaah at it. :D
 
Meena said:
It's going to be a beauty, though, isn't it? ;) I keep toying with the idea of making one (or likely, SO will insist on doing it), but I can't justify it, yet. I bet there's something really satisfying about pulling down on the lever bar and slicing perfectly through umpty-ump bars of soap at once ... but I still can't justify one.

Please return to this thread and post pics when it's done, so I can ooooh and aaaah at it. :D
Click to expand...

I’ll definitely post the finished product. Since I started using poly tubing molds, I’m cutting roughly 20-23 bars each batch. I use a pastry knife and it doesn’t cut as straight as I’d like. Watching videos of wire cutting soap is so oddly satisfying that I decided to build it. =)
 
Yes, please put on pics when it's finished! I made a single wire cutter but the guitar strings keep snapping. I have got quite a few spares (frustrated guitar hero!) and have been using the A or D wound strings. Maybe the unwound ones will work better but I don't think they will be strong enough.
Just bought some stainless steel cheese wires off ebay so I'll give them a try.
 
I burned some midnight oil and was able to make some progress. There’s a slight chance I’ll finish this project today. I hope... will follow up with pics! =)
 
hungryhawaiian said:
View attachment 36451

Ugggghhhh! What should be a quick build (for me) just turned into a few day long project!

Making a 20-22 bar wire cutter but thanks to unreliable parts I had to spend most the day just trying to use my Hawaiian ingenuity to make this work. 4 of the guitar tuning pegs came faulty and were unable to be attached with the fittings provided. That’s where 5-minute epoxy swooped in for the win! Then 2 of my 3 table saws crapped out on me. The 3rd doubles as a work table and has a large marble slab on it. Didn’t wanna take that slab off tonight so I’ll wait til tomorrow. Now I may not finish this project this weekend. But I will not give up!

P.S. Only 12 of the 20 pegs are assembled in this pic.
Click to expand...

I feel you bro. Spent an entire day 2 weekends working on the same thing. Never dawned on me about the opposing 3 of 6 tuners. Also, I didn’t think about the need to align the strings perfectly square. I’m considering this one a mock-up and rebuilding it in a few weeks. Thank goodness I used ply instead of good lumber. Good luck.
 
I'm been planning and wanting to make a large one of these, have a soap mold I'm making currently that is 50cm long and am hoping to design a soap cutter that can accomodate it. I also want to make a slab cutter that can cut 5 logs at once, there isn't really any places in Australia where you can redily buy them and importing from OS is incredibly pricy! Keen to see how yours turns out!
 
reeeen4 said:
I'm been planning and wanting to make a large one of these, have a soap mold I'm making currently that is 50cm long and am hoping to design a soap cutter that can accomodate it. I also want to make a slab cutter that can cut 5 logs at once, there isn't really any places in Australia where you can redily buy them and importing from OS is incredibly pricy! Keen to see how yours turns out!
Click to expand...

I posted the finished product in a new post, but here it is for anyone following. I haven’t attached a platform in the center area yet but that’s gonna be easy to finish. From what I’ve seen, molds and cutters are not cheap no matter where you get them from. That’s why I chose to make my own..

IMG_3986.JPG
 
That's a thing of beauty hungryhawaiian! I'd love to make my own but I'm certainly not as skilled as you. 1" is too narrow and 1 1/4" is too thick for my bars. For now I'm going to keep using my single wire cutter but I'd love to slice a whole loaf in one go!
 
Jstheidi said:
That sure looks better than the one I made last week. I may have to look into guitar string and tuners if my wires give out on me. So far they are still holding up for my little loafs. Here is a picture of the one I made. Not nearly as pretty as yours, but at least it’s functional.View attachment 36528
Click to expand...

Looks like a beauty to me! I’m all for DIYers work over commercialized stuff.
 
KristaY said:
That's a thing of beauty hungryhawaiian! I'd love to make my own but I'm certainly not as skilled as you. 1" is too narrow and 1 1/4" is too thick for my bars. For now I'm going to keep using my single wire cutter but I'd love to slice a whole loaf in one go!
Click to expand...

I like the 1” for my round bars. I’m probably going to make another cutter for either thicker bars or a totally customizable one. My patience wears thin if I have to cut each one individually. Especially now that I’m making larger loaves.

IMG_3906.JPG
 

Latest posts

Back
Top