Anyone who has read the ‘Good Morning’ thread will know I have had a major problem to deal with today. My 6yr old EBosser (die cutting machine) had a hissy fit yestermorn, swallowed a very expensive die and expired! None of the resuscitation techniques listed in the user manual had any effect at all - so - applying the principal that if it wasn’t working anyway I could not make it much worse - I decided to operate!
Scrubbed up, gowned, masked and with scalpel in hand - I removed the back and exposed the innards. Never seen inside one before - fascinating! Trying to look as though I knew what I was doing I carefully removed a heap of screws and loosened the rollers sufficiently to retrieve the cutting plates and the die which was, thankfully, undamaged. Discovered the mad machine had managed to completely shred it’s magnetic shim which, in turn, had gummed up the rollers - hence the seizure. Will never know how that happened as shims are held between the cutting plates and never touch the rollers. Anyway - all cleaned, oiled, and back together - managed to make this box. The design is called ‘Advent Star’ the idea being you make 25, number them and hang them on your Christmas tree after filling them with treats.
The Mad Machine - note blue power light - I fixed it!!
I’m not being rude when I tell you that your star gift box is okay but that’s not the interesting bit, @SilverTabby.
Because what I am impressed by - and I am indeed extremely impressed - is that you fixed what anybody who has ever taken one apart will know is a very complicated bit of machinery.
Kudos to you for that.
Oh well done you! I did feel for you when I read what had happened on the Good Morning thread, so I’m so pleased you managed to fix it. Now, I have no idea what a magnetic shim is, but if the machine had shredded it, how did you sort that bit?
Edited to add: I LOVE that star, it’s really beautiful!
@Bathsheba - a magnetic shim is a mat that holds dies in place as they go through the machine. It is ‘sandwiched’ between the cutting plates so, in theory, should not have been anywhere near the rollers. The one in question was an A4 sized one. This is all that was left of it!
TBH I’ve never heard of a die cutting machine and no idea what they do.
Are those lovely boxed made using the machine?
Why is it called ‘die cutting’?
Does it cut out humans dying?
Dies are metal shapes, words, or alphabet letters that can be used to cut images from a material. They’re made of metal and come in all kinds of fun shapes and sizes - but I have no idea why they are called dies!
To use them you need a cutting machine - this can be a simple hand cranked one or an electric one like mine. You make a ‘sandwich’ = base plate, cutting plate 1, magnetic shim, die, card/paper/fabric, cutting plate2 - and run it through the machine. Hey Presto - fancy shape!
Yes - the boxes and a lot of the fancy stuff you see on my cards are made using my trusty machine. It is 6yrs old now - and I wish I had 50p for every sheet of paper/card that has run through it in that time - I would be very rich!
Thanks for the explanation Tabs. Fascinating and I would imagine really rewarding and satisfying making something of your choosing.
Is there a good selection of shapes to chose from with the dies?
Oh yes - everything from flowers to animals, transport to buildings, numbers, texts, you name it and someone will have made a die that does it! At the last count - I had over three thousand. Some are quite cheap others more so. The most I have paid for a single die set is £25 - but that was exceptional. Some of the cheaper ones are good but soon become blunt. Dies need to be sharp to make a clean cut - especially with some of the lovely lace ones.
Gosh Tabs - over 3,000! What fun choosing something from all those! You often say your ‘rubbing your hands with glee’ when doing something and I can visualise you now rummaging around in those 3,000 dies. .
£25! Do tell what that one is, I’m intrigued…
