Did you know that you can manually zero gap your clipper blades at home and deliver the skin close cuts without spending the extra?
I know tools that are zero overlapped from the factory have their own charm, but the cost-effective method is often opted for even by the professionals out there!
While the procedure can be done significantly fast, there are certain things you should be aware of, and a degree of familiarity with your hair clipper.
Along with the step by step breakdown of how to zero gap a hair clipper, I’ll add some precautions at the end to make your journey error-free!
Contents
Tools and Materials Needed
Let me give you a list of tools and materials you might need while you attempt to zero gap your hair clipper. Keeping these at arm’s reach should render the procedure a convenient one!
Primary Tools
These tools are must have for the zero-gapping process. Without these, either you won’t be able to progress further or the result will not be ideal.
Screwdriver
There are different types of screws on each individual hair clipper. The premium ones generally come with star screws that can be undone using a Phillips screwdriver.
However, you should check the two screws on your clipper blades to find a matching screwdriver because that’s the most important instrument in this procedure.
Clipper Blade Alignment Tool (Optional)
If you’re not confident about your expertise to perfectly zero-gap the clipper blade, there are tools that can help you.
These tools aren’t mandatory to use, but it can certainly speed up your work and guarantee the best possible result in all scenarios.
This blade setter tool can be bought from Amazon and it’s a very handy equipment to own in case you’re frequently realigning your clipper blades.
Clipper Oil
Clipper oils are to be used once you’re done with the zero-gapping part, so might as well keep it around to spare some time.
Cleaning Brush
Lastly, be close to a cleaning brush because sometimes you’ll need to clean out your clipper teeth from the hair residue.
Such residue can prevent an evenly zero overlapped blade and thus thorough cleaning becomes of essence.
With these tools and materials, you should be able to follow through with your zero gapping phase successfully.
Safety Equipment
For those of you who are new to handling professional-grade hair clippers, you may want to use a couple of safety equipment until you get the hang of things. The safety gears may include:
- Protective Gloves
- Safety Glasses (Optional)
- Non-Slip Mat or Towel
These gloves should be very thin for precision. Non-slip mats are effective to place your clipper on while you unscrew the blades. If you don’t have one, just lay down a towel on a flat surface.
Additional Materials
A few additional elements can brighten up your experience and make the learning curve a more comforting one. The things I’m going to share with you aren’t necessarily integral to the procedure, but can certainly help you out at the beginning!
- Magnifying Glass or Smartphone Camera: Having a magnifying glass or a smartphone camera will help you identify if the zero-gapping is dead even. Such close inspection is usually required if you do it without an alignment tool.
- Towel or Cloth: A cleaning towel or cloth is required in the case your blades are dripping lubricant. Slippery blades are difficult to align perfectly, so you’ll need to mop up any moisture.
- Alcohol Wipes or Blade Cleaner: After getting the zero overlapping done, you should disinfect your blades with a cleaner or alcohol wipes. This is to protect the following consumers from infections.
Once you’re all set with the mentioned instruments, you can directly proceed to the technical parts of zero gapping your hair clipper!
Zero Gapping Hair Clippers: Everything You Need to Know
Before you start unscrewing your clipper blades, you should learn the engineering of clipper blades so that you can perform blade adjustment on any type of clipping device!
Blade Assembly Components
Let’s guide you through the basics of a clipper blade – how things work and what you should anticipate during your operation.
- Fixed Blade: If you notice closely, you’ll see that there are two sets of blade teeth and one of them is stationary. That’s the bigger one at the back and for zero gapping, this is the part you’ll have to adjust manually.
- Moving Blade: The moving blade is usually the one up front, smaller in size and directly connected to the motor using a lever. This is the bit that moves around to execute cutting actions.
- Tension Screws: At the back of the fixed blade, there are generally two to three tension screws, depending on the clipper brand and model. You’ll need to adjust the tension for altering the gap alignment.
- Blade Guide: Blade guide is a crevice that serves as a benchmark for where your blade teeth should align with each other. Not every clipper blade is endowed with this feature.
- Spacer or Cushion: Quite a few clippers out there contain a spacing element or a cushion between the fixed and moving blades to avoid friction. You should consider removing that to effectively zero overlap the device.
Operational Mechanics
What does ‘zero gap’ actually imply? Let’s learn the difference between standard gap and zero gap to realize the operational mechanics!
- Standard Gap: Standard gap suggests that there’s going to be a certain degree of distance between the fixed and moving blades. This is done to ensure that the blades are comfortable on skin and doesn’t cause any accidental cuts.
- Zero Gap: Zero gapped blade teeth are almost neck to neck in terms of alignment and it’s quite tricky to handle if not done correctly. Misaligned zero gapped clippers can cause irritation to the skin or even tug, pull in the wrong hands.
Brand-Specific Designs
A little information about the popular clipper brands and their zero overlapping mechanism is attributed to this section.
- Wahl: Wahl blades are standard issues with two screws and quite straightforward to modify. Devices like Wahl Detailer include an alignment tool into the clipper package.
- Andis: Andis clipper blades have a tighter tolerance, therefore you need to be more precise while zero overlapping the teeth. But in general, it’s quite intuitive and easy to apply.
- Oster: Oster clipper blades are unlike anything I’ve ever laid my hands on. Devices like the Classic 76 feature an intricate blade design that we cannot tamper with very easily. Therefore, I’d recommend against manually zero gapping Oster blades unless you have the right tools and know what you’re doing.
- BaByliss: BaByliss clippers are built in a more ergonomic manner and the blade assembly is quite unique. You’ll need specific instruments to zero-gap BaByliss clipper blades and it’d be unwise to proceed without those.
With all this information, I’m sure you now know tons more about zero gapping than you did before reading up to this part of the article!
A Step-by-Step Clipper Blade Zero Gapping Process
Now I’ll give you a step by step procedure to zero gap your clipper blades in the most effective and safe manner for the perfect result!
Step 1: Preparation
If you have all the tools I mentioned earlier, a big step of your preparation would already have been completed.
Added to this, place a mat down on a flat surface and secure your clipper firmly face side down on it.
Make sure your clipper is turned off, the blades don’t have any lubrication and it’s thoroughly cleaned out. Then you can move on to disassembling the blades.
Step 2: Disassembly
Not every hair clipper blade needs to be completely removed for applying a zero gap alignment as a lot of the devices out there only need loose screws to perform it.
Ones that do require a complete removal, make sure to take a photo of how it was previously aligned. Keep the screws at a safe location.
Check if the blade teeth are in mint condition and go for a deep cleaning between the crevices if needed.
Step 3: Alignment Process
Zero overlapping clipper blades doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to evenly align the moving blade with the fixed blade.
The rule of thumb dictates that the moving blade needs to be slightly lower than the fixed one, so that the fixed blade has miniscule height advantage.
This is necessary to ensure safe cuts once you’re satisfied with the gap adjustment. Inspect closely to determine that this height gap is met with precision.
Step 4: Fine-Tuning
Once you’ve set the initial alignment, start putting the screws back together. If you don’t have to completely remove the screws, simply tighten again gradually.
Don’t tighten one screw at a time, instead fasten back and forth so that the tension is evenly applied. If you pick one screw at a time, it’s likely going to alter the evenness of the blade teeth.
Once you’ve reached a certain degree of tightness, check if the alignment is perfectly zero gapped. Then, test out the blade on your arm to assess whether it’s nicking or feeling sharper than usual.
Upon satisfaction, you can fasten the screws back to the position they initially were at. Don’t over tighten the screws as it’ll reduce performance and compromise blade’s durability.
Step 5: Testing and Safety Check
You can’t go directly to performing haircuts because there needs to be some tests and checks performed beforehand.
Go for a demo haircut and be delicate at the beginning. Notice if the blade moves around or is safe on the skin you’re grooming on.
Trace back the steps and redo if you feel things aren’t perfect. Beware that safety should be your first priority.
With these 5 quick and easy steps, you’ll be a proud owner of a zero-gapped hair clipper that’s ready to do your bidding!
Why Do You Need to Zero Gap a Clipper?
Ever wondered why you need to manually zero gap a hair clipper when you can just buy one that’s zero-overlapped by default? I’ll explain the reasons groomers tend to choose this route.
Cost-Effectiveness
Of course buying into a new hair clipper is an expensive venture and manually adjusting the blades with zero cost is definitely alluring.
A huge portion of the groomers apply a zero-gap to their pre-existing hair clipper to cut down on cost as you can easily do it yourself at home.
But if you DO have the budget, I’d say buying a zero-overlapped hair clipper will prove to be much more effective (speaking from experience).
Ineffective Close Cuts
Once you notice your hair clipper isn’t as agile when it comes to close cuts like buzz or crew, then it’s time for you to realign your blades.
Sometimes the blade alignment is disoriented after prolonged use and manually adjusting it back to zero gap setting can restore the original performance.
Inconsistent Fades or Lines
If you’re using your hair clipper for fades, over the course of time you may notice some performance loss, especially when it comes to balding fades or tapers.
This issue is caused either by misaligned blades or a faulty adjustment lever. Should it be the former, a zero-gap adjustment should solve your troubles.
Professional Requirements
Professional groomers or barbers often experiment with different haircuts or they have unique requirements out of their clippers.
Crafting out intricate designs or lining up the hair body cannot be done with a blade that’s not neatly aligned, therefore the need to zero-overlap arises.
Personal Grooming Preferences
Men with balding hair may opt for zeroing in their blades instead of buying a dedicated hair clipper to add versatility to their device.
This could not only help out maintaining their receding hairline, but also be a great tool for regularly trimming facial hair.
Visible Blade Misalignment
Lastly, if you find your clipper blades are getting consistently misaligned, applying a zero gap setting may fix that issue for you.
It’s never a permanent solution and you have to realign the device frequently, but a zero gap baseline gives you the benchmark on where to set the blade teeth every time you have to fix the alignment.
FAQ
In this section, you’ll find some FAQs answered on zero gapping a clipper to further enhance your knowledge basis on this subject.
Q: Can all clippers be zero-gapped?
Ans: In theory, the bigger portion of hair clippers can be zero-gapped with some exceptional units lacking this ability. That said, my personal opinion is that you shouldn’t consider every device for manually zero gapping. Instead, research online or ask your professional groomer to learn which ones are better-suited for the cause.
Q: Will the zero-gapping process void my warranty?
Ans: No, zero gapping your hair clipper will not void your warranty unless you’re altering any part, like blade teeth or screws. Still, every clipper brand has their unique policy, so it’s ideal to read through to make sure you’re not messing around with your potential warranty claim.
Q: Can I reverse the zero-gapping process if needed?
Ans: Yes, most of the manually zero gapped hair clippers can be reversed. But reverting back to the precise, original condition isn’t always possible without a proper instrument. These are set by the factory for a reason and one of the consequences is the lack of accuracy of a reversion process.
Final Thoughts
We went to great extents in the field of zero overlapping while we tried to learn how to zero gap a clipper at home.
I’ve discussed the basic principles, when to consider zero gapping and the specific requirement for the prominent brands.
That said, it might sound easy on paper to make alteration to a zero-gap setting, practically it does demand a degree of finesse from your end.
So don’t go in dismantling your prized hair clipper without having a backup plan. Take pictures or mental notes on where things were, so that you can at least revert back to the original state should things go south.