Sharing an idea with fellow pad makers :)

Hello fellow pad makers! I've spent too many nights cutting liners out of fleece and was looking for a cost effective way to reproduce them more accurately and more efficiently.

I think I found it. Check it out I am so excited!

Dies like these are in fact used in the garment industry but they run around $350 per die and $5000 for the clicker press.

I found a die maker in Texas that works mainly with leather workers (saddles, holsters, etc.) that makes dies less expensively and also was willing to share an idea for modifying a shop press into a clicker press. (My biggest die cost $80, the shop press was $150 and the steel plates were $60, Poly board was $10 at Walmart)

Initially I was hoping I could skip the press all together but an engineer told me that for dies my size it would take about 6 tons of pressure to cut anything.

So it didn't work with just a mallet.

I got the shop press (12 ton) at Norterntools and had 2 steel plates (1/2" thick) made locally to measure just slightly bigger than my biggest die.

I bought a poly board (to not dull the dies) at Walmart and cut it to size with a skill saw.

The Poly board of course goes on top of the bottom steel plate.
http://www.dominopads.com/press1.jpg

fold the material and center the die
http://www.dominopads.com/press2.jpg

metal plate on top of the die and crank it down
http://www.dominopads.com/press3.jpg

remove top plate and see if all is cut. (on the bigger dies I have to move them and press a 2nd or 3rd time to get a clean cut all around)
http://www.dominopads.com/press4.jpg

excess material removed
http://www.dominopads.com/press5.jpg

That's a stack of 7 13"liners - all cut at once. HURRAY!


The best part is how symmetrical and clean they cut out (versus hand cut). It also takes only about 1/4 of the time it would take me to do them by hand and I am guessing I am going to get faster.

I've loved it so much I got dies for all of my standard sizes (petites, regular, plus/longs).
The only ones I still cut by hand are the custom width petites. (My petites used to be the same width - 3"- as my regulars. My new petites are 2.5" across the center and some customers still prefer the wider petites)

Anyway. I know we all need more sleep so I figured I share this idea in case somebody else can use it too.
I just love how professional, perfectly accurate and beautiful my new liners are!

Have a great week :)

Karin
www.dominopads.com