Screen sliced rubber stars?

[Eagle66]

I read Ned Gorski's article, How to Make Screen-Sliced, Brilliant-Red Rubber Stars, and I want to make some. My problem is having to spend $30 (plus shipping) on a screen for just this application. I was wondering if there's any reason I couldn't hand cut these stars with a knife. Or, for that matter, a piece of brass tubing used like a little cookie cutter.

Edited November 25, 2014 by Eagle66

[dagabu]

I read Ned Gorski's article, How to Make Screen-Sliced, Brilliant-Red Rubber Stars, and I want to make some. My problem is having to spend $30 (plus shipping) on a screen for just this application. I was wondering if there's any reason I couldn't hand cut these stars with a knife. Or, for that matter, a piece of brass tubing used like a little cookie cutter.

 

Use a knife, it's the fastest way to do it! BTW-most of those that have found that there is no way you can cut nice squares by pushing them through a screen have taken to using knives to cut stars. 1/4" hardware cloth is really cheap and available locally for most to impress the cutting grid on the face and then cut the lines.

 

Brass tubing should be sharpened from the inside out, use a loose fitting dowel to expel them and wrap enough masking tape around the dowel end so that it doesn't end up falling all the way out. Make the patty relatively dry if you are using a brass tube and keep a damp cloth with your liquid of choice handy to wipe off the tube if it gets sticky.

 

Please wear gloves when sharpening brass tube, it cuts you before you even know it, especially if it's in a drill press or lathe.

[gregh]

The problem you might run into is that the comp is going to harden too fast to cut if you use acetone. I would say you will find a whole lot more uses for a 4 mesh screen than just cutting these stars.

[Blackthumb]

Try these...going to turn a few out of hard maple this weekend...

 

Edited November 26, 2014 by Blackthumb

[dagabu]

Try these...going to turn a few out of hard maple this weekend...

 

 

Purdy!

[calebkessinger]

I'm with the rest of them, screen slicing is crappy for a beginner. A lot of people cut them though. You should practice cutting some with a batch of spider stars though, a good place to learn and cheap! I like my nice shiny sheetrock spreader for cutting stars. It's as sharp as a knife 14 in. I think. nice and thin easy to seperate the rows with.

Man, I wanna go back to the shop now and make some stars!!!! If only I didn't need sleep!!

[nater]

I also prefer to cut this comp, screen slicing always turn out like mouse turds for me. These comps cut nicely for me. Because the acetone dries out quickly, only wet a small amount at a time.

[psyco_1322]

If you use lacquer thinner instead of acetone, the cutting goes a bit better. It doesn't dry out as rapidly and almost seems to reduce some of the stringy parlon mess. Have a spray bottle with solvent in it so you can keep the patty wet as you work with it. It's mainly just the surface that dries and crusts up.

Another note, you can use the parlon binding with nearly any colored comp that has parlon in it. Although there really isn't much point to the binding method unless you need stars in short time. The stars will burn faster, and leave an ashy trail in the sky. Water is really cheap, cuts beautifully, and the stars will pretty much be dry overnight in a drying box.

[eb11]

I did the screen cut method and found the stars burned way to fast

[Shizznt]

I have made these stars also, and I didn't like the way they turned out.

They burned extremely fast, and they had a ugly tail right behind them.

 

[Merlin]

I like stars to burn fast so nothing makes it back to the ground. If your formula calls for magalinum you could use 200 mesh instead of 325 to make them burn longer. As for cutting I went with Skylighters screen method but soon found out a knife works better. The sheet rock spreader sounds like a great idea. I have even heard of using pizza cutters but I think it would be hard to be consistent. Someone was selling one with 6 rollers on it for cutting stars -cant remember where I saw that. The sheet rock spreader or a paint trim tool or a machete is better than a screen.

[psyco_1322]

I like stars to burn fast so nothing makes it back to the ground. If your formula calls for magalinum you could use 200 mesh instead of 325 to make them burn longer.

 

That might give you an extra half second. That's not really going to make much of a difference. Best to just go with tried and true color formulas.

[Shadowcat1969]

Merlin,

The multiple disk cutter is likely a pasta cutter, or a clone of one.