Making End Discs

[BlastFromThePast]

I recently purchased a disc cutter from HF. Can 1/8" lauan be used for end discs for cylinder shells, or is that too dangerous for burning fallout? Edited April 13, 2013 by BlastFromThePast

[nater]

I would not use anything except for chipboard for making discs. I found some 1/8" chipboard sheets at Hobby Lobby and cut them using an AllPax gasket cutter. Others have purchased the cardboard children's books from book and rummage sales and cut them for discs. If you really want to, you can even paste sheets of thick kraft paper together until you get the thickness you need.

 

I do know people who have used plywood for discs, it is considered poor taste and you might have issues with the safety guy on the shoot site. Paper is better.

 

[pyrokid]

I get by with cardboard disks made the old fashioned way for everything 3" and under.

[dan999ification]

Hardback and kids books, compass holding a scalpel cuts the big ones.

For smaller disks I use punches made from pipes.

 

Dan.

[dagabu]

Hardback and kids books, compass holding a scalpel cuts the big ones.

For smaller disks I use punches made from pipes.

 

Dan.

 

+1

[AirCowPeacock]

Pipes are a great idea. I've been tracing my former and cutting it out with scissors, way slow, and I get a poor fit.

[dan999ification]

They look lovely, you can't cut 1/2" discs from 3-4mm grey board many other ways,

 

Got the idea from a video on making beraq couple years ago, they actually use a steel wad cutter/bolster and cut dozens of discs at a time by hand

 

Dan.

[AirCowPeacock]

Hardback and kids books, compass holding a scalpel cuts the big ones.

For smaller disks I use punches made from pipes.

 

Dan.

 

You can rip the same kind of board from3 rng binders, just tare the plastic off.

[Mumbles]

If you're going to be making a lot of disks, like for inserts, it's nice to have something automated. Punches work fine if you're only using a couple of dozen at a time. A friend of mine had a set of arch punches machined so that they could be chucked up in a drill press. An arch punch spinning in a drill press would cut several hundred disks an hour. This was for discs up to 1.5". He used a hole saw with the teeth ground down to a knife edge for larger and shell sized disks in the same way. This works until you get up to disks for maybe 3 or 4" shells. After than an Allpax cutter is invaluable.

 

If you're looking for a source of the material used to cover childrens books it's called binders board. Many art stores sell it for backing and decorative borders. I like 1/16" for insert sized disks, and 1/8" for larger things. If you look hard enough, you can find 1/4" as well.