cutting thin lines

[Marcellarius]

whenever I want to cut a line with the thickness of a saw blade where do I drill the hole?
because the dimensions of the blade the hole is always thicker then the saw blade right?

for example a UR #1 is 0.029 width and with the #71 drill bit size, which is 0.028 I can't get in the blade right.
using the #68 blade with a width of 0.031 the hole is much to thick for the blade and i don't have a straight 0.029 thick line.

how do you guys and gals do this?

for now I use a old blade with the tip cut of and saw a little by hand first until the blade fits, but this is still not nice to see.

[dgman]

Hey Marcel, I usually drill my holes at an intersection if there is one. If not, I will drill at the end of the line and cut the vein a little wider to match the thickness of the drilled hole.

[Rapid Roger]

I do something similar to dgman only I drill near the center (or the tightest curve) of the line and make the wider kerf blend in going both directions out to a point on each end. To me, the slightly wider cut at the center just looks natural to the eye.

Rog

[EIEIO]

When I have a thin line to cut I drill the pilot hole with a 1/32" bit and use a #2/0 or #1 blade. The 2/0 is only 0.010" thick so the pilot hole is a lot wider than the saw kerf, but I rarely have a line as thin as the 1/32" hole. I wind up cutting both sides of the line which is about the width of the 1/32" hole, or if the line really is thinner, I taper the width in the last 1/2" or so to match the pilot hole.

It seems like Trace Bitmap in Inkscape produces lines that vary smoothly in width so there is usually some part of the line that is greater than the pilot hole size.

[ChuckD]

When I have a line to cut, i use the smallest bit I have in my drill press and drill two or three holes side my side along the line.  That way I only need to allow for the width of the blade.  It also helps to put a point on the end of the blade.  Good Luck