I’ve mostly built my machine, and my wife just asked me if it could cut out 80 animal shapes from paper or card for her toddler group. It’s a job she often has to do in the evening with scissors, so I can see why she would want to automate it.
In the past I’ve drilled a stack of sheets of card on a drill press (to make lacing/sewing crafts) but the results weren’t great because it’s hard to clamp the sheets together hard enough.
I guess a drag knife could cut a single sheet, but is there any way to get a fast, clean cut on 10+ sheets of paper? (ideally 80 in one go!) Would a laser work? Or a band saw?
I used to use a band saw to deconstruct books all the time. Sandwich the paper between something stiff like 1/4" ply or MDF, and the bandsaw shouldn’t have any problems. You can shift the clamps around after part of the cut so you keep pressure all the way around the shape. When drilling using this method get the clamps as close to the hole as possible, one to each side if at all possible. Irregular interior shapes would call for a scroll saw.
I’d drill first (e.g. eyes), then cut the outside perimeter. You could even bolt through the drill holes if they were close enough to the edges.
Not sure I’d trust my K40 laser to cut a stack of paper without the air-assist or smoke exhaust fan messing up the alignment. But if you could lay out several per page, each page would cut pretty quickly so the overall job would still be less labor than the scissors route.
I would feel as ok leaving the drag knife job alone as I would leaving my 3D printer alone. So, as David said, try to get as many as you can in one sheet, and just let it run for an hour. If you can fit it into a few jobs, then it should be as easy as changing the laundry.