Re: Cutting housings

Mark D said:

The dremel tool works great. Use the a cutoff wheel. It cuts the casing
and then sands the end smooth. Keep in mind the cutoff wheels break
easily, so wear eye protection.
-----------------
Alex
---------------------------------------------------------------
Agreed Alex, some of the cutting wheels that Dremel offers are very
brittle, and if care isn't taken to not twist the wheel in any manner
while cutting, they do shatter like glass, and probably could take out
an eye quite nicely, since the speed of those Dremel's can run at
multiple 1000's of rpm's.

They do make a mesh re-inforced cutting wheel disc (Available at wally
world), of a slightly larger diameter, which I've found is much less
prone to shatter, and work quite nicely. Either this same disc, or a
small grinding stone can then be used to insure squareness of the cable
housing after cutting. Mark

Really, at 30,000rpm (or whatever), if that cutoff disk decides to
disintegrate, you need to be wearing glasses. I have had the
occasion to be wearing pieces of these wheels in my forehead. They
DO break up and they DO present a serious hazard. Please wear some
safety glasses when using them. If that stray piece flew into my
eye because I was not wearing glasses, I would be blind in that eye.
No [censored]. When I pulled it out of my forehead I could feel that it was
stuck in the bone in my skull. I have a nice scar to remind me.
Good thing it was not my eye. Think about it.

Peter Cole said:

Mark D said:

The dremel tool works great. Use the a cutoff wheel. It cuts the casing
and then sands the end smooth. Keep in mind the cutoff wheels break
easily, so wear eye protection. -----------------
Alex
---------------------------------------------------------------
Agreed Alex, some of the cutting wheels that Dremel offers are very
brittle, and if care isn't taken to not twist the wheel in any manner
while cutting, they do shatter like glass, and probably could take out
an eye quite nicely, since the speed of those Dremel's can run at
multiple 1000's of rpm's. They do make a mesh re-inforced cutting
wheel disc (Available at wally
world), of a slightly larger diameter, which I've found is much less
prone to shatter, and work quite nicely. Either this same disc, or a
small grinding stone can then be used to insure squareness of the cable
housing after cutting. Mark

Most hardware stores seem to keep a variety of Dremel accessories,
there are lots of interesting ones. I always keep the fiber-reinforced
disks on hand, the ones that come with the tool are useless. The
reinforced disk has a number of uses, one of which is cutting cable
guides fast and square.

I've had surgery to remove steel splinters from my cornea just once --
I was perhaps 20 and using a belt sander. Since then I always use
safety glasses with any tool that will throw shrapnel. I keep a pair
on the same hook with the Dremel.

I have always thought that it is interesting and a little surprising
the folks who work around metal will occasionaly be walking around
with bits of metal inside their eyeballs. This is common enough that
you specificaly look for it before, say, putting a machinists head
inside a large magnet for an MRI. Apparantly as long as you don't hit
the cornea, a splinter entering the eye can be almost painless.

These guys:

http://www.aios.org/proceedings.cfm?pid=637&show=y

took a look at 109 people who came to the hospital with penetrating
injuries to their eyes. Of those 109, 61 had chunks of stuff inside
their eyes, but it wasn't causing any problems so it was just left in.

So, you might get lucky, but much better to wear the goggles!

Jim Smith said:

Peter Cole said:

I've had surgery to remove steel splinters from my cornea just once --
I was perhaps 20 and using a belt sander. Since then I always use
safety glasses with any tool that will throw shrapnel. I keep a pair
on the same hook with the Dremel.

I have always thought that it is interesting and a little surprising
the folks who work around metal will occasionaly be walking around
with bits of metal inside their eyeballs. This is common enough that
you specificaly look for it before, say, putting a machinists head
inside a large magnet for an MRI. Apparantly as long as you don't hit
the cornea, a splinter entering the eye can be almost painless.

Well, I can testify that a direct hit in the cornea is far from
painless. Mine had to be removed, since it was a piece of a Fiat, it had
already started to rust.