Disc cutter - oval and other shapes
I recently purchased a disc cutter. I love it, and it is easy to
use! The one I bought goes from 1" on down by 1/8". I had a bit of trouble finding one in stock. It sure is a time saver. I still have to file the edges, but that is nothing compared to the time it takes to saw a circle. Does anyone know where I can purchase a similar item for ovals? I think that someone must make one, because there are bezel formers that start with an oval "washer" shape. Linda |
Disc cutter - oval and other shapes
On Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:16:03 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry gloflyer
wrote: I recently purchased a disc cutter. I love it, and it is easy to use! The one I bought goes from 1" on down by 1/8". I had a bit of trouble finding one in stock. It sure is a time saver. I still have to file the edges, but that is nothing compared to the time it takes to saw a circle. they vary in quality. The best made ones leave the edge with a clean sheared surface. You don't generally need to file these. minor sanding or polishing if you require, but nothing enough to need a file. Does anyone know where I can purchase a similar item for ovals? I think that someone must make one, because there are bezel formers that start with an oval "washer" shape. Oval punches like the common circle cutters aren't made. Producing such a punch is a much more complex machining task that making the round cutters, since for the round cutters, a lathe simply trues up the punches, and a drill or milling machine or reamer cuts the precise hole. In short, round is easy. ovals or other shapes require much more complex (think costly) maching methods to get the required accuracy. That doesn't mean they wouldn't still be straight forward for a good maching manufacturer to make, but it does mean these would be nowhere near as inexpensive to buy, and that greatly reduces the potential market for the tools. Thus they aren't currently made. You can, however, get slightly different punches. The profiform combination shear and bending brake tool, made in switzerland or copied by the chinese in much lower quality and sold by harbor freight, offers (in the original swiss) optional die sets that are sold singly as a set of cutter and die. it's intended to mount onto the bending brake part of the profiform to power it. They cost, if i remember right, around a hundred dollars for each set. Offered in a variety of shapes, not just ovals. There are several other manufacturers who similarly make punch and die sets to cut various shapes, including ovals. As above, these usually are sold singly for each cutter and die, and range in price from somewhat under a hundred dollars per set, to several hundred per set. I seem to recall Roper Whitney, the firm that first came up with their popular little plier style circle punch, also have die sets in other shapes. By the way, don't infer oval punches just because you can buy oval or other shape bezel punches. The main uses of disc cutters is not to prepare blanks for a bezel punch, and bezel punches of various shapes don't mean someone is making a matching shaped sheet metal punch. In contrast to the funny little tool tip in the rio grande catalog, most pros don't use those punches with a flat washer as the starting shape, and they're not really intended or optimized for that method. Usually, a flat strip is bent around and soldered, just as for a standard straight wall bezel, and it's then pressed into the bezel former to get the taper. For higher wall bezels, one can lay out a curved arc shaped blank to bend around, so by the time you're done, the bezel punch is used to true up and finish the shape of the bezel, rather than totally forming it all the way from scratch. Starting with either a vertical walled bezel, or an already partially cone shaped blank deforms the metal a lot less than starting with a flat washer. Among other things, the flat washer method gives a bezel with the greatest thickness at the upper edge. That's often not as useful as one that's thickest at the bottom which is what you can get if you start with a straight walled blank that sits partially up above the bezel punch, and you hammer or press it down into the depression. And starting with a flat washer will tear the metal a good deal more easily than starting with a straight walled bezel. Rio's tool tip is still a good trick, and a time saver when it works, which means you're needing a shallow enough depth of the bezel and can start with thick enough metal and are using a soft enough metal, for it all to work. But even with Rio's trick, you still have to get the center hole right, and most disc cutters aren't so good at centering a hole in a washer (I say most, because there is one type available that's intended to do just this) and if the center hole is off even a hair, your bezel won't be so good. (another advantage of starting with a straight vertical walled bezel is that it's much more forgiving of starting conditions.) HTH Peter |
Disc cutter - oval and other shapes
Thanks Peter
Yes reading the tip in the Rio Catalog is what gave me the idea that there much be other shapes. I live in North Central Minnesota. Its still wild enough to see eagles and sometimes a wolf. But it is a 2'1/2hour drive to get to a jewelry supply store - so I get a lot of my information from books magazines and catalogs. And 3 short classes that I drove down to take. Just enough to get me dangerous, but I still have a lot to learn. Linda |
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