Seek and Geek 9: Nail Clippers

This week, I did nail clippers as my Seek ‘n’ geek. To start, let’s look at a moment balance for
the nail clipper.

From there, we can say that the applied load is magnified 7x.
Now, what’s the stiffness of the nail clipper beam (circled in red in the initial figure and below)

One note: the width of the nail clippers is not constant, but it varies from 7/16 ‘’ to 9/16’’

Lettiere Seek and Geek #9

2.77
 3
If the gap between the cutters is 3/16 ‘’, the force to deflect that is 𝑃 = 𝑘𝑥 = 6.81 ∗ 𝑖𝑛 =
16
P = 1.2 lbs. Now, applying the force balance from the first image, the required applied load (F1)
to compress the nail clippers is ~0.2 lbs or ~1 N. The closest thing on my desk that’s ~1 N (that I
know of) is a ~2 N piece of aluminum which definitely causes the clippers to deflect.

Now these calculations were made with assuming there was no nail in the way. Obviously,
there’s additional force required to actually cut the nail. So, the steps are as follows: a force is
applied to the clippers until they make contact with the nail (see above) the force is increased
until the internal energy stored in the clippers (due to deflection) is enough to cut through the
nails (see below). When the blades start going through the nail, they gain momentum, which
increases until the two blades slam shut after cutting through the nail.

Now, according to Farren, L , the energy to cut nails Is approximately 3 kJ/m 2

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14747405) in the transverse direction (it’s larger in the
other direction and I’m just making a mini estimate here). The contact area is ~7/16 x less than
1
1/16’’ . Using conservation of energy: 2 𝑘𝑥 2 = 𝐸,
𝑘𝐽 7 1
(3 ( ∗ ) 𝑖𝑛2 )
𝑥=√ 𝑚2 16 16 ~ 6.5 𝑚𝑚
𝑙𝑏𝑠
6.81 𝑖𝑛

Wow, that seems like a lot of deflection. I placed the clippers up against a ruler as and tried to
cut one of my nails. After making contact with my nails, the tip of the clippers deflected ~0.25’’
before cutting through the nails, plus or minus 1/16, that’s about 6 mm. Nice.
Lastly, let’s look at the little piece of metal used to scrape metal from under your nails, it’s
circled in green in the first image. While the metal is free to rotate on the clippers, when using
it, it’s fixed by your fingers close to the edge therefore it can be modeled as a fixed cantilever.
𝐾 = 3𝐸𝐼/𝐿3
The stiffness is 123 lbf/in. This is much higher than the main body because the cantilever arm is
so short (~1/2 in compared to 2 in) (based on where I typically hold the piece of metal). Similar
to the main body, I tried deflecting the cantilever by hand. This was difficult and couldn’t see a
noticeable deflection under load. This is expected since it’s so much stiffer than the main body.
If I move my fingers back, the stiffness decreases and I can bend the body a little bit more, as
expected.

Lettiere Seek and Geek #9

2.77