Windmill die cutting
Hello all,
I have a question about die cutting on the windmill… when having a die made do I need to leave a notch or two in the die to keep the finished piece from falling out of the cut sheet? It looks to me that after the piece is cut from the sheet and picked up by the gripper the finished piece will just flop out on to the floor.
Yes, I’m a total noob. :)
Art
Nip it in two places across from each other with a small file.
a file will most likely damage the die. it will easily “walk” on you, damaging more rule than you want. a small chisel from the hardware store will work. just a LIGHT tap is all thats needed. nicks are relative to the stock you are using. small nicks won’t help much with thick stock, and large nicks will ruin your piece on thin stock. plastic needs almost no nick. i have also used a scrap piece of cutting rule in the same way for small nicks.
i would use some scrap rule and practice making these nicks and what they do to the piece. if you were to save this rule with the diff size nicks in it. you could use it on different stocks to get an idea of what size you would need for that given job. at least till you get the hang of it.
the other option occurs when you have a straight side to your die cut. if it works out, the straight rule( which is usually a piece of its own) this rule could be removed with this side being cut later on a paper cutter.
In my experience die cutting cotton stock on the Windmill, the nick isn’t necessary. Every so often one will fall out, but not so many that it’s a problem. I prefer the nice clean look and a little extra waste. I just run the press nice and slow and watch it closely.
ericm, good advice, myself i start die cutting and if the die needs a nick i simply wack it with the edge of my line gauge, this has got me by for almost 50 years. Dick G.
So I had a few dies laying around and decided to practice nicking them with a blunt chisel I had in the shed to see if that would work and it sure does!
Now, maybe I’ll try using a pica pole… :)
Thanks for all the replies!
The pica pole also gets used for a makeup rule, now i’m old and can’t reach my back it also makes a good back scratcher, also i stir my coffee with it, there is no end to its uses. Dick G.
Madmaudepress is right. Ater die cutting birthday annoncements of various shapes and sizes for congress and presidents it has never been much of a problem. You may lose a couple but not many. In fact they have to be cleanly cut. Ron
use the tools you want,,, but, get the results you expect… good luck!
Like madmaudepress wrote, not nicking the dies is the way to go! Very often it just comes to the question where and how to position the die which may prevent the card from flopping out of the sheet. Often you can pull one knife/blade out or let the die be made in a way that you can trim one edge afterwards.