Rotary cutters are used to cut fabric and paper. They are especially popular for quilters. I use one regularly. We recently got a message that several rotary cutters used in a charity quilting group were missing a piece. Walt was able to use one of my cutters to create a 3D printed version to replace the missing parts.

A rotary cutter is used against a thick ruler to cut fabrics or paper. The rulers are about an eighth of an inch thick and the cutter is run along the edge. I used a rotary cutter to cut along the edge of this quilt when I was squaring it up to finish the border.

It is not difficult to change the blades, but you need to have all the parts to use the cutter. In the image below, the blade is on the other side of the cutter. The yellow plastic washer goes on first, then the small metal washer and finally the threaded piece. The yellow plastic washer was the piece missing.

The back side of the cutter taken apart.

Creating a fix

Walt used the piece from my cutter to measure and create a design in OnShape. He talks some about the design process in this post. It was a fairly simple design. He printed one to test the process. We determined that the center hole needed to be a little larger, so he made the adjustment.

Walt then printed 6 of the pieces for the rotary cutter. We did a little bit of cleaning up the edges and tested them on my cutter.

My rotary cutter and the washers. The blue ribbon is to help identify which one is mine at a quilt event.

Once we tested them, we sent them off so they could be used. I got a picture a few days later. They had been written on to say “Do not discard.” The group uses a piece of tape to not when the blade was last changed.

This was another good use of our 3D printer. And the charity group has working rotary cutters again.

My current rotary cutter is from Olfa (no affiliation). I like this on because the blade is automatically retracted when you release the handle. Which makes it much harder to bump into and slice your hand open.