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Archive for the ‘Automatic Cable Cutter’ Category

What do you do when faced with measuring and cutting a bunch of cables? If you’re Edward Carlson, you “simply” build a machine to do it for you!

While it may not save time on this run, at least on the next occasion that he needs a few cables cut, he can just program his device to snip everything to size!

His setup uses an Arduino Mega with an LCD/button shield to tell the machine how long to snip each wire, then employs a stepper motor to move the cable between two rollers to the correct length. When in position, a high-torque servo actuates a (normally) manual pair of clippers to cut it to size.

Be sure to check out the project explanation in the video seen here, or skip to around 5:30 to see it in action!

2PrintBeta solves the problem of cutting multiple cables with an innovative scissors setup.

At times, the 3D printing and engineering company 2PrintBeta needs to cut wires and other assorted materials to length. Sure, they could simply cut them by hand, but that takes time and their business is growing. An industrial cable cutter is quite expensive, so being an engineering company, they decided to make their own using a rather rugged pair of scissors actuated by a bolt attached to a drive disk.

For this operation, wire feeding is done by a pair of 3D-printed wheels, and the “brains of the operation” is provided by an Arduino Mega using stepper motor drivers.

The ideas ranged from razorblades to a holder for a dremel with a cut sheet. But a short test showed: scissors are sufficient. So why not use scissors?

If you’re skeptical about how well scissors work in this application, be sure to check out their video below! You can also read more about the project here, or check out Hackaday’s writeup.

 



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