[Jewelry making - Article 00409] - Re: [Orchid] Disc Cutter Use

[Trevor F]

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    If you'll forgive a somewhat belated addition to this topic I'd like
    to add one small thing I tried and found useful. 

    In the course of this discussion it was mentioned that a hydraulic
    press, or even an arbor press, make a good substitute to simply
    whacking the cutters with a hammer. I have neither press but I still
    don't particularly fancy the hammer approach. So today I tried a poor
    man's version of the press idea and it seemed to work fairly well. 

    This is probably only useful for cutting small disks or disks through
    thin sheet ... but here it goes: 

    - set everything up as if you were going to whack your cutter with a
    hammer. 

    Set the disk cutter on the edge of your work bench so that the
    specific cutter you are going to use is touching the edge of the
    bench. 

    - take a LARGE C-clamp and position it so that the screw part of the
    clamp is under the lip of your bench and the fixed part is sitting in
    top of your cutter. I used an 8 inch clamp. 

    - tighten the C-clamp.  As it starts to build pressure make sure that
    it is as centered on the cutter as possible.  You want the building
    force to be in a vertical line, so that the upper clamp, cutter and
    screw are all aligned vertically. 

    - slowly screw the clamp tighter and tighter. 

    - if everything is set up right you should build up pressure and then
    get a POP! as the cutter shears through and drops your disc out the
    bottom. 

    One advantage of this is that as soon as the disc is cut there's no
    more pressure.  The cutter doesn't travel any further and your disc
    doesn't get rammed down onto the lower plate. 

    FWIW I think that next time I'll try a larger C-clamp, say a 10
    incher. I think a longer arm on the clamp screw would make for a more
    controlled procedure. 

    As ever, safety first: wear your goggles, etc, etc. 

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

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