Circle cutter

jeannette · June 28, 2013, 10:22:47 PM

Hi -

Has anyone tried one of these?
http://www.warm-glass.co.uk/easycut-lens-cutter-p-1211.html
I wondered if it would be any good as I have some vouchers.
Thanks
Jeannette

Barnacle Bay · June 28, 2013, 10:56:30 PM

Yep I have tried a similar one, very fiddly - sold it yonks ago,as I could never achieve a clean cut, and tring to tap it out was a nightmare!

Nicknack · June 28, 2013, 11:18:33 PM

I have one, and I love it! I bought it while on a course at Warm Glass, after being shown how to use it and trying it out. It's very simple to use, and I've never had difficulties with a clean cut. 'Tapping it out' doesn't really work - we were shown how to cut the circle as near the edges as possible, then press down with something (I use the handle of my mosaic cutters) on the cut from the other side, all round. This should start the circle separating from the rest of the glass, but it doesn't usually just pop out, you have to score the surrounding glass at the 3 (or 4, depending on the shape and size of the piece of glass you're cutting from) narrowest points, then break off the corners with grozing pliers. If 3 sides are removed, it generally comes out from the 4th side, if there's a fair bit left of the piece. You often get some small bits that haven't come off the circle, but you can break them off with the grozing pliers, and for fusing it doesn't have to be an exact circle. I use it for all my circular fused dichroic pieces, and they usually look pretty good, I've posted some in the Gallery before, and have given one as a prize for PIF (the first one I gave, the second one was square-ish). Any of my pictures will take you to my Flickr, where there are several photos of round ones.

I hope this is understandable, and helps.

Nick

jeannette · June 29, 2013, 06:39:24 AM

Thanks. I have a grinder and can do OK circles with the normal cutter and then grinding, but I wondered if it would be easier to use this cutter to get it better first time. I think it's the same however you cut the circle to get the shape, it's just getting it circular to begin with.
I'd never normally get one, but I have some vouchers and thought maybe get a tool rather than just glass....
Ta very much!

JKC · June 29, 2013, 07:23:44 AM

I have one and its fine, but you have to tidy up the edges a little bit, but not too much. Janet

Nicknack · June 29, 2013, 11:22:37 AM

It would certainly be easier and quicker than cutting and grinding! It doesn't take very long, and the shape is good.

Nick

Barnacle Bay · June 29, 2013, 12:06:10 PM

Obviously the one I had was not as good as this one

jeannette · June 29, 2013, 04:07:38 PM

Ah I'm gonna get one and see! Thanks!

Grody · June 29, 2013, 06:40:50 PM

Got one sitting on the shelf brand new - opened the box but I've never used it. Anyone want it?

They're £56 inc Vat at the mo on WG site. It weighs 952g in the manuf box so, if I post it as it is, should get under the 1000g limit but it'll have to go in the new RM "Medium Parcel" category so therefore would be either £5.20 @ 2nd Class or £5.65 @ 1st Class. If it slips over the 1000g, it then becomes £8.00 or £8.90, the robbing b*astrds!

How about £30 inc. postage i.e makes it about £24-ish instead of £56?

PS: How did Royal Mail manage to impose these new postage rates on us all without there being riots in the street? Did we, like lambs to the slaughter, just let them do it without any complaint? I for one didn't find out until it was too late. They have killed quite a number of mail order/Ebay businesses overnight and crippled quite a few others. Sorry, quite a rant, eh?

jeannette · June 29, 2013, 06:50:14 PM

Yes please!

Nicknack · June 29, 2013, 06:51:01 PM

Apparently, as from 14th July, they will have to ask what's in every parcel, "For security purposes", and put bar codes on for everything. That'll help the speed of the queues!

Nick

JKC · June 29, 2013, 06:54:17 PM

Bargain!

Grody · June 30, 2013, 09:51:32 AM

OK, sold to Jeanette! Hope she is as happy with it as other people are with theirs.

I didn't ever use it as I worked out a circle system that only uses straight cuts and with very little wastage. Ha, now that's got you curious, hasn't it??

Have a nice day everyone. Off to spend some time with some blood family - much thicker than water!! (Hmm, that could be taken two ways, couldn't it? I meant it in a complimentary, non-divorce related way actually

)

jeannette · June 30, 2013, 11:22:20 AM

Yay! Circles, circles everywhere!
Thanks!

Madam Steph · June 30, 2013, 01:03:23 PM

Quote from: Grody on June 30, 2013, 09:51:32 AM
OK, sold to Jeanette! Hope she is as happy with it as other people are with theirs.

I didn't ever use it as I worked out a circle system that only uses straight cuts and with very little wastage. Ha, now that's got you curious, hasn't it??

Have a nice day everyone. Off to spend some time with some blood family - much thicker than water!! (Hmm, that could be taken two ways, couldn't it? I meant it in a complimentary, non-divorce related way actually )

Last week I had a one to one first Glass Fusing class with Caroline Weidman, the proprieter of Glass From The Past @ Barleylands, Billericay, Essex, and four weeks prior to that I had a glass cutting class with her. She formats her classes this way so that you know exactly how to cut the glass before you start your intro into the fusing. She is very thorough in her tuition and taught me the method of cutting circles with straight lines.
I can thoroughly recommend her classes, and I definitely will be signing up to her weekly classes and also her lampwork.

Linda x