Breakthroughs on the Grooving Cutter & Glue

The grooving cutter in a compass (after I mucked it up on the lathe.

I’ve spent more than $1,500 so far in the effort to find and develop an inexpensive and reliable grooving cutter. If it weren’t for an error I made on the lathe this morning, I might be declaring “Victory!” today.

But instead, I am declaring: “Victory?”

I am sold on the fact that these inexpensive Exacto blades are the best cutter for both curved and straight cuts. You get eight of the suckers for $12 – that’s a lifetime supply. They are easy to sharpen and hold an edge as well as any cutter I’ve tested. The steel is just .022” thick. With all the tools that I made and tested, the thinner cutters always seem to cut better than the thicker ones.

But how to hold it?

Bert Bleckwenn, who turned me onto these cutters, mounted them in O1 drill rod with a 13/64” hole bored into it. The blades are friction-fit into hole. This setup works great, but I kept thinking: What device is supposed to hold these blades? Can I get one? Can…