Gail Dapogny on fri 21 may 04
Several potters I know in our guild have been struggling (aching hands)
with cutting stencils out of mylar, using exacto blades. A mutual
friend devised the following: He took a soldering iron from Home Depot
(25 watt, he said is best), found a threaded exacto blade in a craft
store , and combined the two to make a soldering iron with an exacto
blade!
Gail Dapogny in Ann Arbor,
currently land of mighty thunderstorms and hail and flooding
Robert Huskey on sat 22 may 04
If you make your own hot stencil cutter like this , make sure to use a
steel exacto screw. The old ones were steel . All the new ones I have found
seem to be made of aluminum . I made one as you describe and it bent in use
. Actually just such a soldering iron type device with exacto blade tip is
sold commercially. But if you have an old steel exacto knife you will save
money by making your own . This hot knife really does cut plastic sheet
great.
A useful method too is to print or copy onto transparency , and cut
it as a stencil.
Bob Huskey --- Tallahassee , Fl. USA
>
Several potters I know in our guild have been struggling (aching hands)
> with cutting stencils out of mylar, using exacto blades. A mutual
> friend devised the following: He took a soldering iron from Home Depot
> (25 watt, he said is best), found a threaded exacto blade in a craft
> store , and combined the two to make a soldering iron with an exacto
> blade!
>
> Gail Dapogny in Ann Arbor,
> currently land of mighty thunderstorms and hail and flooding
>
>
Donald G. Goldsobel on sun 23 may 04
I recently acquired an exacto cutting tool that is shaped like your hand and
not like a pencil. It uses utility blades and lets you get fine cuts with no
finger pressure. Your arm provides the power and the hand controls the cut.
The but end of the tool rests in the palm of the hand. I got mine at an art
supply store.
Tip. Oiled oak tag is great for stencils. It wont absorb water because it is
oiled and oak tag is strong. Another easy to cut/use stuff is linoleum
flooring.
Donald----- Original Message -----
From: "Gail Dapogny"
To:
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 7:37 PM
Subject: Another tool
>
Bruce Davis on sun 2 jan 05
I teach an a community center. I make my students provide a diaper--a disk
of scrap clay--to sit their glazed piece on during firing. This is after
many hours of grinding and chipping glaze runs and drips off the shelves. I
myself like to experiment with layering glazes and combine my own glazes with
layers of commercial "textured", reactive glazes such as some of the Spectrum
prodicts. I get interesting effects and they sell well if they survive
firing.
I also like to do woodworking also and several years ago I just had to
have a Roto Zip, router-type thingy that the telemarketer said was the
do-all, end-all of workshop tools.......after I bought it, I found it almost
worthless for the things I like to do.....
Just before Christmas I had a lot of pottery with diapers stuck to the
bottoms and I was trying to find a grinding disk or cutoff disk for my 4"
portable grinder that would be small enough and thin enough to grind the bottoms
without screwing up the surrounding glaze or gouging the bottom. I tried
all different combinations but all were too wide, thick, etc.
Then I saw a 90 degree grinder attachment for the Roto Zip that included
a thin, dry diamond cutoff disk.......Wow......it went through the glaze
like butter and was very manouverable. In addition, it has a clear plastic
safety shield so that you can see exactly where you are cutting. I used it with
all of the normal safety equipment--eye protectin dust mask, etc......it was
great.
Best Regards,
Bruce Davis, Mud Run Pottery
Gulfport MS
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