[Jewelry making - Article 00040] - Re: [Orchid] Disc Cutter Use

[Trevor F]

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>     I have just bought a disc cutting set which has three circular
>     sections one above the other. 

Hello Kim,

    It sounds like you and I have the same design of cutter. I really
    like mine but I've found you do need to work with them a bit to get
    to know how they work best. Here are a couple of things I've done and
    do to get the best results: 

    - definitely anneal your metals first.  Much cleaner cuts and less
    brutality required when it comes to the whacking part of the job. 

    - yes, absolutely do protect the cutters from striking that bottom
    plate. I have used a sheet of copper foil down there but it gets
    chewed up pretty fast and doesn't seem to provide much cushion for the
    incoming disk. 

    - these days I'm just using a chunk of thick carboardy material, like
    the stuff used to make cheapo shipping boxes for jewelry or the USPS
    Global Express envelopes.  You want something _without_ pattern or
    grain on it because that pattern will get pressed into your incoming
    disk (annealed = soft = very impressionable :) ). 

    - as to thickness of sheet I've cut stuff as thick as 2 mm but it
    takes a lot of "whack" to get a clean cut and ... well, who needs to
    go there. 1.5 mm seems to be a comfy upper limit for me, 1 mm is
    easy-peasy. 

    - FWIW I use a 3.5 lb dead-blow hammer with a hard plastic face on it
    for most of my thicker/larger disc cutting.  Of course that's pretty
    much overkill for smaller disc or thinner material so I step down
    accordingly for those. 

    - another trick that seems to allow me to cut discs with a short,
    sharp blow is to set everything up, then rest the head of a square
    wooden mallet on the head of the particular cutter I'm using. So now
    I'm aiming to hit the face of the mallet (big target) and not the
    head of the cutter (little target). 

    - don't forget to keep your cutters oiled!  You want them sliding up
    and down as smoothly as possible.  It makes things a little messier
    but things get ugly if those cutters start sticking and/or spot
    rusting. 

    Good luck and happy disc cutting.  As ever your kilometage may
    differ. 

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light
www.touchmetal.com

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