What Are Die Cutting Machines?
If you've graduated to precise shape cutting with clean edges, then die cutting is the next logical step in your design portfolio. Die cutting machines make this possible. These machines infuse craft projects with professional polish by adding print-grade techniques to scrapbook related tasks. The "die cut," at least in a manual context, can be compared to a cookie cutter. The steel blade is shaped to match a certain font or a detailed shape and then pressed down in the cutting tray to score the specified shape into a section of stationary.
Differentiating Die Cutting Machines
You can find these machines marketed as simple to operate manual devices and as sublimely versatile digital models. The difference between the two types comes from the application of templates or stencils, cutout tools that act as the scoring edges. Just as with a commercial printer, an image is applied to the source material, though calculated pressure replaces ink as a shaping medium in this instance.
Manual Die Cutting - Pre-shaped die cutters that are fitted into the machine tray and pressed against the paper or fabric until the cut is achieved. Models based on this type of die cutter are easy to master and very popular in the lower end of the scrapbook market.
Digital Die Cutters - Versatile and customisable mid to high end die cutting machines that embrace modern technological standards. They use cartridges and special software to adjust the cutout on the fly, enabling hobbyists to create a never ending selection of shapes and typefaces.
Opening Artistic Vistas
As the basic variants of these machines are the easiest to figure out, let's stick to these simpler units. The steel rule die shapes that inhabit the machine are primarily designed to cut shapes through applied pressure, but this task can be elevated to incorporate many other hobbyist actions. The machinery is configurable and able to simply score the paper card. Furthermore, these actions can be altered to emboss the material or engrave it, opening the gate to advanced creative endeavours that could never be duplicated by even the sharpest pair of scissors.
Material selection is the final component in the die cutting armoury. While paper scoring and cutting still leads the market as the established operational medium, fabric and foam cutouts are stirring the waves in the die cutting realm. Eager scrapbook enthusiasts can leave their machine and its source material in the hobby nook all day long as stickers and decals are produced for kids, thin sheet metal cutouts are made for a local business, and leather sections are stamped into shape for a purse or new clothing accessory.
A Note on Commercial Die Cutting
Unlike domestic units, replication is prized above all in the commercial world. Like the moulds that manufacture identical car components all day long, commercial die cutting machines produce thousands of metal sheet parts and thin plastic components, each indistinguishable from the next.
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