custom die cut machine?
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- jonaschafer
does anyone know where to get a custom die cut machine? I've only ever seen those cheesy scrapbook ones that come with hearts and stars.
i'm looking to get a die made and use it with a machine for on-demand runs.
ideas?
thanks well in advance!!
- skwiotsmith0
I think you can get custom dies made through scrapbooking stores, but it will take a couple of weeks to get them.
I think...
- jonaschafer0
good to know. thanks! anyone know of any online places?
- Spookytim0
If its just for your own low run use, you can get a die made as per scrapbooking store, back it up on a thick piece of cork backed with plywood, then use a woodworker's bench vice to press it through. Works quite well except that depending on the kind of die you get made (a cheap cookie one for example) it can distort if you over work the vice. I found the way to resove that was with a slab of one or two inch thick cork which you push the die into then nail a piece of plywood on the back of it as a hard surface that the die can't push through under pressure. The cork inside the die shape helps to keep the shape under pressure if you see what I mean, and always put a piece of sacrificial thick card between the die and your stock to get a nicer cleaner cut.
Used to make dies out of food can tin and pike nosed pliers at college!
- Yeah, you can also use a book press
http://capellabookar…epigraph
- Yeah, you can also use a book press
- Machuse0
are you asking about the die's ... or the machine that presses the die's?
- jonaschafer0
wowzers! thanks SpookyTim, thats quite the trick! I think i might actually try that - have you thought about posting that idea on Instructables?
- I don't even know what instructables is... !
(I'm a luddite)Spookytim
- I don't even know what instructables is... !
- mrseaves0
yeah. that's a pretty good trick, but I'm a girl and not handy, so therefore a tad confused. Do you use the vice to press the die onto the paper to cut it? I thought a vice only went horizontal. Sorry if that's a dumb question....
- jonaschafer0
the machine that makes the dies. it appears that you can get custom dies made but not the means to use them (unless you go to a printer).
- jonaschafer0
Instructables is a free resource where you can post how to make different things:
- Spookytim0
Yeah, it can be a bit fiddly, but I would make a 'pack' which was;
1. My plywood and cork enforced die
2. A piece of sacrifice card
3. My stock
4. some thick card against a flat piece of wood to provide a rigid pressure plateI would lay all those things down on a piece of thick inch-wide ribbon and tie it tight around, then drop the pack into the vice and slowly crank it.
The other thing is you an by a print makers press from art shops and use that to apply a flat, even presure. more expensive but will give good results.
- jonaschafer0
yeah or play-by-play photos...
- Spookytim0
how did you register?
I used to make a mountboard frame, like a window mount and from memory I think mine was three sided. That would be attached to the rearmost panel of wood (ie not the one with the cork and the die, the other piece) and my stock would be held in place by that to automatically register the stock to the diecutter.
The reason mine was three sided was becuase I was die-cutting my logo at the time into A4 covers... which were A3 sheets, so one side of the stock had to hang out of the window mount.
This was in about 1987 so I'm a bit rusty on the specifics and it really was a case of taking great care to do it by hand. Its not something you'd want to try for more than 50 copies. I would be cutting about 5 to 10 at a time depending on the stock.
Its got me thinking about it again and I think I might try and re-create it if I get some time, or at least draw it all as exploded technical diagrams / isometric views in Illustrator and stick it up on instructables for someone else to try.
- epigraph0
I'm all about doing it on the cheap, the hard way, by hand. But after a few projects like that, I consider $800 to have it done money well spent !hehe