talkmagic.co.uk

I think it's prob best to start a new thread, as the topic of the thread I initially started, has changed somewhat.

Anway, I'm after a guillotine for trimming the width of a full deck of cards by 2mm (maybe 3mm at the most), so obviously it'll involve trimming 1mm off each edge, so that the cards look symetrical.
As a result, I'll also need a corner rounder, to round off the corners of the trimmed down cards.

Any ideas which ones would be suitable and where to buy them from ??? Please go sensible in terms of cost as these will prob not be used very often after their initial use !!!!

Thanks

Have you considered securing the deck, lengthwise, and using an electric sander on both long sides?

Obviously, use sensible safety precautions (gloves, mask, goggles), but I think you may be surprised

As for a corner rounder - I believe cards4magic.co.uk will be able to sort you out with what you need, chum!


Rob

If I was trying the sanding trick I'd clamp the deck between 2 blocks of wood whose edges were the desired distance from the edge of the cards and then sand down to the block. More than that I imagine there'd be a risk of damaging the edges of the lower and upper cards so the edges puffed a bit.

magicrob wrote:Have you considered securing the deck, lengthwise, and using an electric sander on both long sides?

Obviously, use sensible safety precautions (gloves, mask, goggles), but I think you may be surprised

As for a corner rounder - I believe cards4magic.co.uk will be able to sort you out with what you need, chum!


Rob

You love sanding don't you! I've seen you mention sandpaper many times, do you use it in any of your routines?

You could probably use a belt sander to throw cards...

Sandpaper is very highly underrated, in most magician's toolkits

I've honestly lost count of how many sheets of glass and aluminium paper I've gone through, whist making various gaffs!

A mate of mine interleaves sandpaper with his sheets of toilet tissue. Apparently in life you just have to take the rough wih the smooth...

Mandrake wrote:A mate of mine interleaves sandpaper with his sheets of toilet tissue. Apparently in life you just have to take the rough wih the smooth...

Hence the saying, as rough as old ah... maybe not here, eh?

Moonbeam, the best type of craft guillotine is one with a proper blade. Have a look for the Craft Tonic one: http://www.crafting.co.uk/product.php/1 ... ine_8_20cm

(I am not saying buy from this site, merely that it's got a nice big picture for you). X-Cut make (or made) an absolutely identical one, originally in blue, then later in pink, so try searching under that brand too. It might be cheaper! (As an example, see here: http://www.craftydevilspapercraft.co.uk ... otines.asp).

I know it's not cheap, especially if you have to pay postage, but this is a good quality guillotine. One word of advice - you will obviously make sure you keep your fingers clear of the blade. You must also, however, keep your knuckles clear of the metal guide next to where the blade comes down.

It will be a bit of a slog shaving off 1mm from a card 104 times, though. The sander option may be a lot easier, especially if the cards have a nice slippery finish, and you end up with wonky edges when the card moves a fraction while you are cutting.

Corner rounders are trickier, because you get all sorts of different radii. Good craft ones may tell you the redius, but finding an exact match might not be easy. I am fairly sure someone here once posted about the exact size you need for playing cards.

The Crafty Devils site I mentioned above has 10mm, 5mm, 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch rounders, and I have seen a "Corner Chomper" that does 1/8 and 3/8 inch corners. The Corner Chompers are quite expensive, but designed for things like chipboard, so fairly robust.

I'm fairly certain the corner rounder issue has been discussed at some length on TM previously - I'll see if I can track down the relevant threads for you


EDIT: Here you go mate -

ftopic9518.php
sutra373347.php

Rob