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Precision plate makes steel filings on some wafers.
OK, the precision plate.
At first, I loved it. No more waxed paper. I put the precision plate (with the label side down) on top of my magnetic base plate, cardstock, die and cutting plate. Run it through and even the most hair pulling die I own (Cottage Cutz Garden Fence and Gate) will come out cut clean through.
Now, maybe the rest of this is my mistake.
I decided to leave the precision plate on the base plate. I normally cut thin dies anyway and when I need to run a steel cut, I remover the whole base plate anyway, so why not?
This past weekend, I made 8 cards with Elizabeth Craft Designs/Karen Burniston die called Palm Tree and Pail. After cutting the palm trees and coconuts, I started getting metal filings in my fingers. Fortunately, they were hanging out long enough to grab them with tweezers. After the 5th one, I started investigating things under the magnifier lamp. The edges of my Palm Tree die had all of these loose pieces of metal hanging on them!! I thought, "Oh, Hell! I am dulling my thin dies!!"
I took a Swiffer sheet to wipe them so the things would not hit the carpet and go into our feet (we are bare footers!). Other than getting a filing in the thumb, this did not work.
I took the dies out to the garage and used a steel wire brush to clean them over the trash can. I got them all off and hubby who came out to see, looked and said he didn't think the dies were damaged. He looked over the precision plate and thought that the filings may have come from it.
I disagreed. If the die was cutting into the plate, then the plate would have the shape of the palm tree cut into it AND it would be kind of useless to be the "Go-To" plate for cutting intricate dies.
He then looks at the dies under the mag lamp and agrees with me. The palm trees cutting edges are being broken off in layers. Weird because they are still cutting perfectly, but with the filings, I won't be using them on the precision plate anymore.
As I said above, it may be my fault for keeping the precision plate on the base plate and cutting all of my dies on it.
I guess from now on, I will keep it off of the base plate unless I am cutting Shimmer Sheetz or a really intricate die.
But when you think about it, I only cut 16 trees and 8 coconuts. That isn't a lot of cutting for the price I paid for it.
As for warping, I use the BigKick and the precision plate definitely does warp "wide open" dies, like label dies, oval, square, card creators (I was well and truly P O'd about that!) and there is a sudden stopping of the roll through when you hit the edge of any square or rectangular die, once the die is fed past that, it rolls fine until it hits the other end or edge.
Let's talk for a minute about the cutting pads it goes through!!! Oh, Great Googamooga!!
I bought a pair of mint green cutting pads figuring they would be easy to these were my DO NOT CUT cutting pads (I use one as the top cutting pad when the die is facing down. This stops the cutting pad from picking up cutting grooves and transferring them to die cuts. What can I say, I'm a Virgo). Within a month both of those mint cutting pads were so badly warped they couldn't even be used on steel dies anymore!!
The precision plates EATS cutting pads! I know that after a time, cutting pads will warp and curve, but this was 2 pads in 30 days! I thought maybe the colored pads were not as strong, so I tried the clear pads and the same thing happened! I measured the bow in the cutting pad, from the flat surface of my desk to the highest part of the bow is almost an inch!!
Even using the Mad Stampers solution to straighten the bowing out of cutting plates, the precision pad really chews through them.
One thing I will say, before I got the precision plate, I was using, specifically for shimmer sheetz, but also for intricate dies, Elizabeth Craft Design's Metal Shim. I never had any kind of metal filings using that shim. You need 2 cutting pads and your original base plate if, like me, you use the mag base plate all of the time.
The regular base plate, cutting pad, metal shim, cardstock or shimmer sheet, die and cutting sheet. is the sandwich.
I do still love the precision plate for the intricate dies, but I won't use it on regular wafer dies anymore.
PS. fortunately, I heated my card creator dies up a bit with the heat gun and kept bending them, slightly, until the laid straight again. I was afraid they were ruined, but they are as good as new now.
__________________ Consultant for Fun Stamping Journeys!
Member of: AHF, FFRF, ACS Relay for Life
Oh this sucks!!! So is it really worth getting then? I am assuming it can work if you only use it for intricate dies. Some dies are just a pain. But I am seriously wondering if it is worth it now.
I still stand behind my original posts: To me, this cutting plate is absolutely not worth the aggravation, frustration and damage it causes.
Couple that with the major, major downgrade in the overall quality of Sizzix acrylic cutting plates and one has to wonder if planned obsolescence plays a larger part in their product line than ever before. Do I want colored plates? No. Do I want plates that stay straight longer? Heck Yeah! Spellbinders Grand Calibur is starting to look better and better.
I still stand behind my original posts: To me, this cutting plate is absolutely not worth the aggravation, frustration and damage it causes.
Couple that with the major, major downgrade in the overall quality of Sizzix acrylic cutting plates and one has to wonder if planned obsolescence plays a larger part in their product line than ever before. Do I want colored plates? No. Do I want plates that stay straight longer? Heck Yeah! Spellbinders Grand Calibur is starting to look better and better.
I posted that I made friends with the cutting plate and now I have to say it's not worth it. I'm back to my metal shim that works just fine. My dies don't curve and I get clean cuts.
I'd also like plates that stay straight so I don't have to remember to flip them but I'd really like plates that don't etch so fast as that is a bigger pain for me to remember to put a piece of copy paper to protect my paper from marks.
I've learned a lot reading back. Thank you all for your comments. I think I will still get this plate, but because of your input, I won't use it with the magnetic plate. I also will only use on my hard to cut dies. Currently I only have one that is so stubborn. If it works on that one I will be truly amazed because I run that one through at least six times and add shims!
I posted that I made friends with the cutting plate and now I have to say it's not worth it. I'm back to my metal shim that works just fine. My dies don't curve and I get clean cuts.
I'd also like plates that stay straight so I don't have to remember to flip them but I'd really like plates that don't etch so fast as that is a bigger pain for me to remember to put a piece of copy paper to protect my paper from marks.
I'm with you there too. Bring back the old style plates that were thicker and minus that awful beveled edge. How many ways can you cut quality, raise prices, and still maintain your client base?
As an aside, I was talking to the folks at Sizzix one day and concurrently simmering one of my scarred/warped new plates in a frying pan filled with water on the stove preparatory to reshaping it. When their rep heard what I was doing, she totally freaked out and soundly admonished me that doing so was seriously harming the plate........ I was speechless.
Hmmm...I was going to get it in the next month or two...but am wondering if I should now too. So far (not having LOTS Of dies yet) I haven't really NEEDED it...the intricate ones I do have work pretty good with wax paper...so...I may hold off longer now too. Would love to not have to use wax paper, but it's not worth ruining the dies over either cause if you ask me they are WAY to expensive to have to buy them again anytime soon! :(
So...guess I'll hold off a little longer. *sigh* Kinda low on money the next month or two anyway with some extra expenses...so that works for me better. :-))
__________________ Deb
Last edited by dapperdoxie; 08-25-2015 at 04:35 PM..
Reason: can't spell! ;-))
All these issues, are you getting them with intricate dies as well or only basic shapes that are not very intricate?
It doesn't bend my intricate dies. Maybe it is because there is so much metal supporting them.
I will use the precision plate for only my intricate dies, but not the larger, more open ones.
__________________ Consultant for Fun Stamping Journeys!
Member of: AHF, FFRF, ACS Relay for Life
I'm with you there too. Bring back the old style plates that were thicker and minus that awful beveled edge. How many ways can you cut quality, raise prices, and still maintain your client base?
As an aside, I was talking to the folks at Sizzix one day and concurrently simmering one of my scarred/warped new plates in a frying pan filled with water on the stove preparatory to reshaping it. When their rep heard what I was doing, she totally freaked out and soundly admonished me that doing so was seriously harming the plate........ I was speechless.
She admonished you because you were trying to save money and not buy anymore of their cheap cutting pads. You were costing her company money!
She just didn't get it. So what if you ruined the pad, it was useless anyway!!
Boy, she really drank the koolaid, didn't she?
I haven't tried that way of shaping the pads.
I've only done the Mad Stampers way of reshaping the pads.I use my mag plate a lot so I need my cutting pads to be straight. If the pads are warped, the dies won't stay where they belong.
Good for you in calling Sizzix!!!
__________________ Consultant for Fun Stamping Journeys!
Member of: AHF, FFRF, ACS Relay for Life
She admonished you because you were trying to save money and not buy anymore of their cheap cutting pads. You were costing her company money!
She just didn't get it. So what if you ruined the pad, it was useless anyway!!
Boy, she really drank the koolaid, didn't she?
I haven't tried that way of shaping the pads.
I've only done the Mad Stampers way of reshaping the pads.I use my mag plate a lot so I need my cutting pads to be straight. If the pads are warped, the dies won't stay where they belong.
Good for you in calling Sizzix!!!
I can take only accept partial shame and blame for the boiled plate fix. The Frugal Crafter uses running hot water which works but impatience kicked in and my envelope got stretched a bit.
Would you please steer me to the Mad Stampers Cure? Always looking for a better way to do anything.
I finally got my PBP and tried it on my platform with the new intricate Delicate Ornament Thinlets Dies from Stampin' Up! Holiday catty....it would not go through...period. I tried using just one tab and it was not enough, even paper shims were too numerous that way. So, I tried it on my magnetic platform (centered over it) and it went through and cut it nicely but the paper was stuck in the die...so I used my paper piercer to gently remove...then I tried running Just my dies/thinlets through with no paper but just a dryer sheet with standard sandwich. Then tried the PBP on magnetic platform, and paper, die and acrylic plate...worked like a dream! Cut the paper completely without wax paper and had a nice clean cut. I did try running it through with the dryer sheet under paper on PBP and acrylic pad on top, it cut the dryer sheet as well. So, it worked well to run dies through on dryer sheet on regular or magnetic platform sandwich...this put a coating (not visible) on die so paper did not stick in thinlet/die. So I didn't need to use wax paper.... Hope this helps someone. I am very glad I got the PBP. Love it! But, I am only using it for intricate dies.
Last edited by Ruthiemarykay; 08-27-2015 at 06:41 AM..
I remember reading somewhere (can't remember where) that the PBP should only be used for intricate dies. It was not meant to be used for shaped dies like squares, circles, etc.
I finally got one and did try it with the Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles biggest die which is very intricate around the edges. It did cut all the way through which I was not able to do before. It is definitely a cutting pad I will use only for intricate die cuts that I can't cut using the normal cutting pads.
I'm with you there too. Bring back the old style plates that were thicker and minus that awful beveled edge. How many ways can you cut quality, raise prices, and still maintain your client base?
As an aside, I was talking to the folks at Sizzix one day and concurrently simmering one of my scarred/warped new plates in a frying pan filled with water on the stove preparatory to reshaping it. When their rep heard what I was doing, she totally freaked out and soundly admonished me that doing so was seriously harming the plate........ I was speechless.
The beveled edge actually helps with the Big Shot Pro because for some reason if I don't hang the plate over the edge it is a little difficult to get the sandwich started. I actually hope that new plates for the BSP will have a beveled edge.
I'm sorry for you that the Sizzix rep was harsh.
I tried one of the Pinterest cures where you bake the plates and it was a disaster. I followed the instructions, I even verified my oven temp, and yes the plates flattened out but after a few uses all the plates developed cracks on the edges and eventually all 4 of them broke. Now I just stick with keeping one plate for the bottom and rotate the top plates to minimize the curve. I also put them in the dishwasher every now and then to remove all the itsy bitsy paper shreds.
I can take only accept partial shame and blame for the boiled plate fix. The Frugal Crafter uses running hot water which works but impatience kicked in and my envelope got stretched a bit.
Would you please steer me to the Mad Stampers Cure? Always looking for a better way to do anything.
Thank you!
She has a YouTube video here https://youtu.be/hqaYifHCTFY
You can see when she sets her bowed ones together how bowed they are...mine after the precision plate had twice that much space in the opening!
__________________ Consultant for Fun Stamping Journeys!
Member of: AHF, FFRF, ACS Relay for Life
She has a YouTube video here https://youtu.be/hqaYifHCTFY
You can see when she sets her bowed ones together how bowed they are...mine after the precision plate had twice that much space in the opening!
Thank you so much for passing on this YouTube video address. I watched it and had one striking observation: the pads she was straightening were the "old" style of acrylic plates i.e. thicker and no bevel. (Would give anything to have that quality again!) Not so sure as to oven timing with the new flimsy plates but might try it anyway. I think that lack of quality may play a part in why your new plates bowed so much.....as did mine.
Personally, I'm done dealing with the havoc wreaked by that darn piece of metal and it will stay under the bottom shelf, out of my sight. Hopefully, someone can use it for a "project" within the century. Or not.
I just got this link from a friend...it is a you tube video from Sizzix on the Precision Base Plate. Informative and he explains how to avoid so much warping of the clear plates..
I just got this link from a friend...it is a you tube video from Sizzix on the Precision Base Plate. Informative and he explains how to avoid so much warping of the clear plates..
Thanks for the Sizzix YouTube url. Watched it and marveled at his manual dexterity only, new information not so much.
If you read the Comments section, some of whom are shop owners, you'll see that their objections are exactly the same as previous contributors to this thread! Really wished it would have helped but IMHO, this video was a Dog & Pony show that backfired.
I bought the precision plate yesterday. So far I don't see what all the hoopla is about. I tried it with two different dies. It was not a miracle worker and the first die did not cut through completely after four runs. The second die cut cleanly, but after two runs. I do like that the dies don't seem to be cutting into the plate but I will be playing more to see if I love it....I bought mine at Michaels with 40% off but its still sizzix, which is what SU sells. Just doesn't have SU logo on it.
Do you mean just replacement plates or is there a new design in the offing?
Lesley
I don't know. My BSP plates are not beveled so you have to hang the top plate over the edge to get it to roll through which is how the instructions say to do it. It would be nice if the BSP plates where beveled to make it easier.
From what I'm reading, one of the main issues seems to be the metal filings from cutting metal on metal. What about flipping the plates and cutting into the regular plastic cutting plate (as long as the plastic one is on top)? I think it's the stability and sturdiness of the metal plate that really matters, not that the die is cutting against it. I'm going to give it a try and report back after I do.
From what I'm reading, one of the main issues seems to be the metal filings from cutting metal on metal. What about flipping the plates and cutting into the regular plastic cutting plate (as long as the plastic one is on top)? I think it's the stability and sturdiness of the metal plate that really matters, not that the die is cutting against it. I'm going to give it a try and report back after I do.
I tried this a few weeks ago, and it worked! The die cut like butter, and there were no metal shavings. I had the plastic plate on top, and I had the cutting side of the die against the plastic plate.
I tried this a few weeks ago, and it worked! The die cut like butter, and there were no metal shavings. I had the plastic plate on top, and I had the cutting side of the die against the plastic plate.
Doesn't this turn that metal precision plate into a shim? Or did I miss something?
not to worry stamphappy, i am sure this hobby will suck up those $$$ somewhere else! i have the thin metal shim thingy. still not much success. and it was always curling up and being stupid. you would think when these companies come up with these fancy dies, they would also come up with a way to get them to work... just saying. wax paper, dryer sheets, shims, metal shims, mylar shims, a plate, b plate, c plate, thru the cuddle bug, thru the big shot pro, drink rum, repeat.
Hahahahaha......LOVE it!! Except with tequilla!!!
__________________
Jo
Proud Fan Club Member
...sure it�s got a catchy beat, but can you stamp to it?
life is something that happens only when you run out of cardstock
yes it is in place of the plate you would cut into. it does not go thru the cuddle bug a bit too wide and i mean just a bit. i used my big shot pro. i almost threw this die out, i was so disgusted. i thought this would be a quick easy xmas card. it took me four hours to make four of them and i quit. i messed around with the sandwich, the cardstock, colored copy paper seemed to be the only solution and it looked cheap. wax paper. cussing. lots of cussing. (sorry baby jesus) i brought this home and it was the first die i tried. heavy card stock. i used my wire brush tool and out all the little pieces came. i am keeping the die. i still kind of hate it though for all the frustration it put me thru.
Does it matter if the die is facing down on the precision base plate or die cut side up?
Does it matter if the die is facing down on the precision base plate or die cut side up?
Paper down on the precision plate then die cutting side down then plastic pad. Depending on the machine you have to work out the sandwich. The plate is meant to cut into.
Instructions say to sandwich complicated die face down directly onto paper on precision base plate followed by a regular clear plate. This has always worked for me.
Don't try to use the precision base plate on simple dies like thin frames, etc...they will warp badly.
Precision plate makes steel filings on some wafers.
