Card Cutting Jig

11/11/2023

Cutting parallel strips from Styrene Sheet keeping them uniform size is not the easiest task to perform. I need to cut many strips of 1mm Styrene Sheet 17mm wide for the carcass of some platforms I am building. 

Starting with some 12mm MDF I glued a well used cutting mat face down using spray contact adhesive to make the cutting table. 2 strips of mild steel 3 x15mm and 3 x 25mm are cut to 420mm the width of the cutting table. The narrower strip will be the datum stop and the wider strip the cutting fence. The datum stop is screwed to the cutting table while the cutting fence has the indexing holes reamed to 5/16” and 3/8” brass tube press into the cutting table again reamed to 5/16” to accept the mild steel locating pins. NB.I used imperial stock bar as that is what was to hand in my workshop!

12/11/2023 Temporary fixing screws holes drilled screws fitted to set the cutting fence to 17mm the pilot dowel is fitted into the left to drill pilot holes of 4mm diameter to enable the 3/8” brass tubes to be pressed into the cutting table.

Pilot holes of 3.5mm diameter opened up to 9.5 mm 

Brass bushing pressed into the cutting table 5/16” dowels fettled into place. Oh the “Align Here” label covers two holes that are not required! Okay hand up I made a miscalculation. 

I finished off today with keeper plates and rubber feet to the underside of the cutting table. 

13/11/2023 Again temporary fixing screws holes drilled screws fitted to set the cutting fence to 50mm the pilot dowel is fitted into the left to drill pilot holes of 3.5mm diameter to enable the 3/8” brass bushing to be pressed into the cutting table.

Pilot holes of 3.5mm diameter opened up to 9.5 mm Brass bushing pressed into the cutting table 5/16” dowels.

A loose datum stop marked 30 will be used to cut strips 30mm by placing it against  the fixed datum stop I have ordered a 25mm bar so strips 25mm can be cut.