August 30, 2023

Dremel Soda Can Cutter

(Sorry … STL files for this project are not available yet.)

I’ve toyed around with other Soda Can Cutters in the past and while they worked well I wanted to try something powered… so I designed this Dremel powered soda can cutter.  I don’t really cut up enough cans to warrant this project it’s just another one of those things I made to see if I could do it.

The design consists of a base to hold the Dremel with a cut off wheel and an adjustable height table to support the can while cutting.

The adjustable height which controls the height of the blade/depth of the cut is handled by a simple thumbscrew/nut setup.  The flip out red spacer is used to control the cut on the top or bottom of the can.

The exploded parts.

The printed parts of the base and table…

…and the printed control parts.

The hardware used on this project consists of some 6-32 heatset inserts, 6-32″ flat head screws, a 4-40 screw, and a 5mm bolt and matching nut.

The first step in assembly was to insert the heat-set inserts into the printed threaded Dremel mounting block.

This block is the affixed to the base with the 6-32 screws.

Next the thumb screw head is inserted into the table and the 5mm screw is inserted from the top. (A little superglue was used on the bolt head to affix it to the thumb screw.

The 5mm nut is inserted into the base piece.

The entire table can then be slide onto the base while turning the thumb screw to lock the table tot he base.

The can spacer was then attached with the 4-40 screw.

Next the Dremel is threaded into the mounting block.

The cut off wheel is then chucked up in the Dremel making sure it aligns with the slot in the table.

The table height can then be adjusted using the Thumb Screw to set the depth of the cut.

With the can spacer folded back, the Dremel is powered on and the top of the can is cut off buy rotating the can around until the top is cut free.

The first cut was a little rough.

The Edge Guard is then inserted into the top of the can. The can spacer is then folded back into position and the bottom of the can can be cut off. (not shown)

This cut was also pretty rough because there was a lot of flex in the Table piece as the can was rotated during cutting.  Some modification are going to be necessary.

Some design changes that were made… I made the base longer to support the weight of the Dremel on the back end (left side), I extended threaded Dremel mounting block to stop any flex, and I added side supports to keep the table from moving.

I did make the base a little thicker also and added some slots in the bottom… these will add more printed walls which should keep the base from flexing at all.

Here is the new configuration.

The redesigned parts.

Here is the new can cutter ready for testing.

I also added some rubber feet to keep it from dancing around while in use but it’s still a good idea to clamp the whole thing to the bench when in use.

I bought these cheap $9 Diamond Cutting Wheel Cut Off Discs to try… hopefully these will hold up better than normal cutoff wheels and not wear down as fast.

The new design does cut much cleaner but it’s still not perfect…

For what I use these for it’s good enough and all of the edges can be cleaned up with a pair of scissors.  I might make a few more small changes and if I start using this a lot a might add a vacuum attachment to it in the future to collect the cuttings.

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