The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Paracord Hot Knife

    An upcoming project calls for cutting dozens of lengths from a spool of 550 (pound tensile strength) all-nylon paracord, which means I must also heat-seal the ends. Cold-cutting paracord always produces wildly fraying ends, so I got primal on an old soldering iron tip:

    Paracord cutting - flattened soldering iron tip
    Paracord cutting – flattened soldering iron tip

    Bashed into a flattish blade, it does a Good Enough job of hot-cutting paracord and sealing the end in one operation:

    Paracord cutting - results
    Paracord cutting – results

    Setting the iron to 425 °C = 800 °F quickly produces reasonably clean and thoroughly sealed cut ends.

    Obviously, I need more practice.

    Yes, I tried laser cutting the paracord. Yes, it works great, makes a perfectly flat cut, and heat-seals both ends, but it also makes no sense whatsoever without a fixture holding a dozen or so premeasured lengths in a straight line. No, I’m not doing that.