Rotary Drag Knife?

I was cutting some carbon cloth with a Fiskars 45mm rotary cutter today and it made me wonder if it’s possible to use the same blade in a drag knife on the MPCNC. Has anyone done it? I’m sure you would have to limit the radius on any corners, and perhaps use the smaller 28mm blade.

I think that’s been done?

An observation: - a drag knife is called drag knife for a reason, and a rotary cutter has been designed to eliminate drag while cutting.

If the carbon cloth is stiff or bonded to a backing you might get away with it, but if the drag knife hooks on just one tall thread it could all end in tears (of both kinds).

But don’t let me stop you, I’d love to know! Cheers!

It seems to definitely be a thing. A Guide to CNC Digital Knife Cutting Tools & Blades | STYLECNC

Generally rotary knives are used on positionable cutting tables. I’ve not seen one on a drag knife.

Ahh yes, my apologies -I misread the question didn’t I? I thought you were going to try to use the drag knife! The article you linked to has a very clear description of how each blade works and the differences - and yes, you’d have to experiment with what was the minimum radius of cut.

I wonder how you apply sufficient pressure to cut the carbon? Since you’ve been cutting by hand I’m curious to know how much more than cutting normal fabric? Having cut a fair bit of Kevlar and glass by hand with scissors and knife I can almost get excited at the thought of machine cutting.

And my wife sews a lot - cutting quilt blocks could be fun from here on as well - please report back when you have it sorted! :wink:

From the page you linked:

BlockquoteWheel Knife Tool Wheel Knife Tool was conceived as an efficient, cost-effective tool option for single-ply cutting of glass and carbon fiber as well as technical textiles.
The use of HSS blades in this tool allows for very high processing speeds and a clean, efficient workflow. Cutting occurs in pressure mode.
The pressure settings can be adjusted to precisely match material properties and desired cut quality. A special PU (polyurethane) underlay is used in conjunction with this tool to prevent damage to the cutting surface.
Wheel Knife Tool Advantages

  1. High processing speeds
  2. Uses rotary HSS blades.
  3. Requires no vacuum hold-down.
  4. Clean, efficient cutting process.
  5. Special PU cutting underlay. Original source from https://www.stylecnc.com,
    if you want to copy, please indicate the primary source: A Guide to CNC Digital Knife Cutting Tools & Blades