A little off the back, please...

[dubby]

So I had a little job come through Thursday. Got this aluminum block shipped to me in the mail, and the customer had asked me to widen it out. The block comes with the slot milled in it, and spacers situated to hold utility knife blades in place. This whole assembly is flipped upside down and used in a press to cut thin slits in soft plastic lures (tubes).

It comes where it'll hold 11 blades, and the customer wanted at least two more blades, or more if I could get them to fit. I managed to 'fit' 16 in, but decided 15 was easier so I left it there. The piece jumped out of my vise, and has a little hickey in it, but it didn't affect anything and I didn't bother trying to clean it out. I do a lot of work for this guy, he understood and didn't care. The spacers are just 1/2" wide, 1/16" strip material. I didn't have any, so had to cut some out of plate. It's kinda ugly, but works.

I'll most likely come up with this same sort of apparatus to sell in the future, but for now I'm not gonna worry much about it.

Anyhow, as I was milling the sides out, I noticed that I was struggling to see the cut. I hollered at Dot1, and asked to borrow one of her makeup mirrors. After a brief fight and lots of convincing that I wouldn't break it, she allowed me to finish up the job. It worked so well, I decided I needed a more permanent solution and dug out a scrap piece of mirror I had stashed. I wrapped the sides in some tape to keep the edges from being so rough, and stuck it to the back of my enclosure with double-sided tape.