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Welcome to the
ButtonMakers.net
Guide to Cutting Circles
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One of the first and most important parts of making buttons is cutting out the circles. Pretty much all button machines in existence require that your graphics be cut out into their respective shape before they can be pressed into your favorite pin-back button badge.
In this guide we're going to go over the different options for cutting circles for use in the button making machines, the some of the benefits and instructions for each option. They're listed in order of popularity. You can click the following links to jump to a different section of the page:
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Graphic Punch
The Graphic Punch is really the best option available for most people. It's fast and accurate, and is the easiest to use. If you are making buttons professionally, you need a graphic punch. If you are making more than 500 buttons, you need a graphic punch. You can actually put more than one strip through the punch at a time, but if you are doing only one at a time, you can usually punch about 100 graphics in 30 minutes. It doesn't use blades so it never goes dull. You can use it over and over for years to come.
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Step 1:
When you're using a Graphic Punch the first thing you have to do is cut your page of graphics into strips. (If you need help laying out buttons and printing them click here.)
Step 2:
Once you have the strips cut out, you can start punching out the circles. Position the cutter like you see here in the photo, with the handle facing you. Feed the strip of paper in between the two cutting plates.
In this example, I use my left hand to guide the paper and my right to push down the handle. My thumb helps guide the paper and center it properly. My fore finger and middle finger help position, and push the punched graphic through the hole.
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Step 3:
Once the graphic is perfectly centered in the opening, push the handle all the way down. Then with your middle or fore finger push the graphic up through the hole, and move it aside. On the smaller sizes there is a metal cylinder in the center that you push upwards from the bottom to push the punched graphic through. On the larger sizes you just push it though the hole with your finger.
Repeat until you're finished with all the button designs.
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Adjustable Rotary Cutter
The Adjustable Rotary Cutter is a good choice for those on a budget or those looking to do multiple sizes. As the name would imply, it adjusts to different sizes. There are preset sizes of 1, 1-1/2, 2-1/4, 3, 3-1/2, but you can adjust it to any size in between. It is more affordable than the Graphic Punch, but I find it more difficult to use and more time consuming. Also, the preset sizes are not as accurate as I would prefer.
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Step 1:
The Adjustable Rotary Cutter comes with two plastic Circle Templates precut to the 1.313 inch size for the 1 inch buttons. If you're doing 1 inch buttons you're ready to go and can skip to step 2. For all of the other sizes you first have to cut your Template. This is optional if you're really good at eyeballing the center, but most people will have to do this at least once.
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Loosen the screw at the top, and then slide the bar with the blade attached to it to your desired spot. In this example, I'm using the 2-1/4 inch preset or 2 clicks from the starting position.
Next make sure to tighten the screw at the top back down, and make sure to place the cutter on the metal cutting board that it came with. Now press down on the handle with a good amount of pressure, while holding it steady with the other hand and rotate the handle around and around several times. Until you've cut all the way through the plastic.
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You should now be able to easily remove the excess plastic material and get down to business cutting circles for button making.
Step 2:
Place the page of graphics on the metal cutting board, and center the Adjustable Rotary Cutter on top of a graphic. Press down on the handle while holding the cutter in place with the other hand, and rotate the handle around once or twice. Repeat until you are finished cutting out all of your graphics.
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As you can see from the photo on the right, the preset 2-1/4 inch setting is a little smaller than my graphic, which happens to fit perfectly in the 2-1/4 inch graphic punch and perfectly into the 2-1/4 inch machine when cut exactly on. These graphics that I cut with the rotary cutter are just a tiny bit smaller, which is ok. But it might mess up my perimeter text a bit. |
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Cutting By Hand
I can't recommend this idea personally, because I am terrible at cutting circles by hand! But there are many people who don't want to spend the money on circle cutter. And honestly if you're not doing that many buttons at one time, and you think you can refrain from pulling all of your own hair out in utter frustration, then I say to you by all means cut 'em by hand.
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Step 1:
Get yourself a good paper cutter. People tell me they use scissors too, but I think an blade cutter is best. In this example I'm using an Olfa brand knife which I love and adore.
Get yourself a good cutting board specifically meant for cutting paper. If you try any other surface, you'll have slipping problems or groove problems. And trust me, this is tedious enough as it is!
Step 2:
I find you can cut out a pretty good circle by hand in two motions. Starting at the top in the middle of the circle, rotating wrist down to the right and ending at the bottom in the middle. Then starting back up at top middle, with the blade pointed the other way, rotate the wrist down and to the left. This is the fastest and most accurate way that I have found doing this by hand.
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Another idea would be to use one of the precut Circle Templates we sell for the rotary cutter. These are currently only available for the 1 inch buttons but if you would be interested in purchasing a template for another size, please email us and let us know.
One more note about cutting circles by hand: They don't have to be perfect. As long as there is enough material to wrap around the button shell and you can reasonable center it in the button machine, you've done a good job. So don't worry too much if you're circles are more like crappy lop-sided ovals. It'll all work out in the end.
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Volume Cutter Press
Lastly we have the volume cutter. This baby is a great choice for professional button makers. It's easy to use, can do multiple sizes and cuts through 30 pages of graphics at once! It totally rocks. Except if your printer does not print in the exact same spot on the page, you might run into trouble using a cutter like this. Some graphics, especially circular images are more predisposed to looking really awful if they are the least bit off center. Where if the button image was just text across the middle you probably wouldn't notice a little off-centering at all. Perimeter text is pretty much impossible to master using this cutter. It all comes down to the type of graphic being used and your priorities as a button maker.
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Step 1:
Print out all of your pages of graphics and stack them as straight as humanly possible on the cutting board. I even recommend stapling them together around the entire perimeter of the pages and down the columns just to ensure that they don't shift around.
Step 2:
Center the cutting die on one of the graphics and directly under the circular pressing plate. Then grab the handles with both hands and pull down. It doesn't take any force really, and you just cut out 30 buttons in one fell swoop!!
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