paulrace wrote:
Karin,
I get overwhelmed just looking at the catalog. Don't let Maria near those steel edges - she does enough damage with the Xacto knives.
Seriously, have you been using this stuff to make your own stamp? Next time, you could take lots of photos and notes, hint, hint.
Thanks for chiming in,
Paul
Paul, making a die rule cutter is much like making a hand bent cookie cutter
same concept except much sharper. But you need a groove track cut to insert the top edge in. You can find some good videos around on cutting grooves into wood for marquetry details or string banding on guitars. Watching those should help. Just use the recommended width of groove for steel die rule material.
I cut my designs with either a laser cutter or a drag knife cutter. We have both of them here. In addition to being an artist who creates buildings in miniature I also have a background in manufacturing including CNC machining. I do all my design work in 3D CAD so outputting to machines is a natural extension of the process and I have been doing it for more than a decade now. I have run room size drag knife cutters on carbon fiber materials. A bit more sophisticated machines but essentially the same as running a little desktop one other than the parts on the large one are held in place by vacuum pressure on a perforated table instead of a sticky backing sheet and the head of the machine moves instead of the carrier board.
I can make rule die cutters myself but I have no reason to do so as I have those cutting machines. My tiny glitter houses are being done with the drag knife cutter as the laser has been out of town most of the last two years. But it just pulled into the driveway a couple of hours ago, I am very happy to see it again as well as my partner/boyfriend!
I am itching to play with the 3D printer he has recently added to our machine stable. We will be ordering a professional quality drag knife cutter this week; it has been paid for by my tiny glitter house sales this Christmas season.