Cutting Vulcanized Rubber

[pyrodenis]

I have bought strips of rubber, that are cut from a sheet. They used a tool with a spinning disc that had well polished sides and a knife edge. Think of a spinning pizza cutter.
Brady's drag knife approach makes sense. Spraying with a lubricant would help.
Freezing it would allow a rotary cutter to work. And, thinking of someone other than myself running from large freezer to bot with a large, brittle sheet of rubber; well, that would make me feel better about some of my antics over the years.
But, if you're tempted to freeze, here's my 2 cents worth: get a metal channel to lay over the cut. fill it with dry ice, move it over to next location, while cutting the first.

[jerry_stanek]

I have bought strips of rubber, that are cut from a sheet. They used a tool with a spinning disc that had well polished sides and a knife edge. Think of a spinning pizza cutter.
Brady's drag knife approach makes sense. Spraying with a lubricant would help.
Freezing it would allow a rotary cutter to work. And, thinking of someone other than myself running from large freezer to bot with a large, brittle sheet of rubber; well, that would make me feel better about some of my antics over the years.
But, if you're tempted to freeze, here's my 2 cents worth: get a metal channel to lay over the cut. fill it with dry ice, move it over to next location, while cutting the first.

What you are describing is a carpet cutter

[Brady Watson]

Speaking of rotary knife cutters...If you add a stepper (same channel as Indexer for instance) you can cobble together a rotary cutter using the utility in ShopBot Labs - From what I've heard, it works really well.

-B

[gerryv]

Don't know if it will help but I did my garage floor with stable mats and used a <$100 Porter Cable orbital jigsaw to cut them. The orbital feature made a very big difference. Then again, I was only doing under a dozen mats.

[knight_toolworks]

I made a drag knife that could do 1/2" cardboard. but anything more it took two passes. rubber would be more work. but get rubber wet and it cuts far easier.

[andyb]

Thanks for all the info guys. I'll look into the drag knife but I have a feeling a jigsaw or something that the customer can do himself is going to be the answer.

Andy B.

[shilala]

Would a laser work?
I've never had any exposure to laser machining at all, and have no clue what they do and don't do, or even how they do it. I'd think "burn and smoke", but I'd think that of everything they do, so I just wanted to throw it out there and see what you guys say.

[donek]

As I understand it lasers can be sensitive to certain types of smoke, so it may be an issue.

Rubber properties do change a bit with temp, but as we all know our tires don't get hard and crack, even at 30 below. It's doubtful that even those temps would make the material machinable.

I'm not an expert in rubber, but any rubber operations I have seen done, have been done with a knife blade or ruled die. Even drilling is done with a special hollow drill that is sharpened like a knife.

[twelchPTM]

When I need to cut rubber I use a scalloped band saw blade or a v-tooth for the harder stuff. If your cutting a lot the smell is almost inevitable. I roll my band saw out to my paint booth and kick on the fans.