Finished design of my slab soap cutter

[DWinMadison]

Can't wait to get building....

Can't wait to get building....

I have no idea how this will work in reality, so if anyone is handy or has a s/o who is he/she wants to look this over, I’ll be glad to add the dimensions and share the file in Sketchup. I’d appreciate a critical eye before I waste a weekend building it. There may be design flaws I cannot see.

 

[Cal43]

My husband is a draftsman. He does drawing for homes and businesses and he is a builder . I’ll ask him.

 

[Cal43]

Can't wait to get building....


I have no idea how this will work in reality, so if anyone is handy or has a s/o who is he/she wants to look this over, I’ll be glad to add the dimensions and share the file in Sketchup. I’d appreciate a critical eye before I waste a weekend building it. There may be design flaws I cannot see.

He said he can look it over.

 

[DWinMadison]

He said he can look it over.

Excellent. Does he have access to Sketchup? If not, I'll put the dimensions on a PDF and post it.

 

[Hendejm]

Brilliant! Looks like it will work great!!

 

[DWinMadison]

Brilliant! Looks like it will work great!!

Brilliant! Looks like it will work great!!

Thanks, man. It was a fun weekend project/diversion/stress reducer. Will be interesting to see if it translates from design to execution and actually works. Pretty ambitious to try a home-built linear rail system. {grimace}

 

[dibbles]

My son made me a slab splitter and used a drawer slide. I don't know if that will work with your design, but it moves very smoothly.

 

[Cal43]

Excellent. Does he have access to Sketchup? If not, I'll put the dimensions on a PDF and post it.

Hello, he has AutoCad, but he says pdf will work. You can also send it to his email if you like. That way it can be downloaded to his computer for better viewing. His email is [email protected]

 

[DWinMadison]

Here's an updated version. After some comments by a friend, I decided to:

1) Move the linear rails (the part that makes the cutter arm slide under the table) farther apart for added stability
2) Add a handle at the right side of the cutter arm to allow the user to apply more even pressure when pulling through the slab/loaf
3) Since I had the table top space, I added 2 additional cutting wires, but of course, using them would be optional.

Hope this helps someone. I'll keep working on it. Maybe I'll get some time to build on it this weekend. My plan is to mock it up in plywood before investing in anything better.
It's still only a theoretical model.

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

I cant imagine making that much soap at one time

 

[DWinMadison]

I cant imagine making that much soap at one time

Lol. Agreed, but keep in mind, the original idea was for cutting slabs, not loaves, and cutters 2 and 3 are purely optional.

 

[DWinMadison]

I cant imagine making that much soap at one time

Then again, cutters 2 and 3 only make sense for slabs if you’re cutting square bars which approximately zero people do :/

 

[DWinMadison]

Here's some cuts with dimensions in case someone wants to have a go at it. CAL, I'll email them to your hubby as well.

 

[Cal43]

View attachment 37656 View attachment 37657 View attachment 37658 Here's some cuts with dimensions in case someone wants to have a go at it. CAL, I'll email them to your hubby as well.

Some of the numbers need to be fixed. There are some where the “ is in the wrong place. This makes it look like the measurements are small than they should be. Ex 1” 3 1/4 I think should be 13 1/4”

 

[DWinMadison]

Some of the numbers need to be fixed. There are some where the “ is in the wrong place. This makes it look like the measurements are small than they should be. Ex 1” 3 1/2 I think should be 13 1/2”

Can't be. Sketchup measures them, not me. They may be too small in the format I had to save them too. I've looked them over, and they are correct. Perhaps my nomenclature is unclear. the 3 1/2" on the slots is the distance from one another and the edge.

 

[Cal43]

Can't be. Sketchup measures them, not me. They may be too small in the format I had to save them too. I've looked them over, and they are correct. Perhaps my nomenclature is unclear. the 3 1/2" on the slots is the distance from one another and the edge.

Ok , this is just me looking at it. Hubby is about to check it out

 

[Atihcnoc]

DwinMadison your slab cutter looks great!! please show the final product as soon as it is done....Good luck!

 

[DWinMadison]

Ok , this is just me looking at it. Hubby is about to check it out

What file extensions can he read?

 

[Cal43]

What file extensions can he read?

He said DWG

 

[DWinMadison]

He said DWG

Sorry. To export to DWG I have to upgrade to a higher version of Sketchup for 119. Don't see how that makes sense.