Another Sizzix question - dies

[piratesmate]

One of DDIL's dies doesn't seem to cut completely through the paper. Every time I use the tag die (standard, triangular end) the largest one always has a section of one of the long sides that doesn't cut through.

I know with some of the smaller punches, they recommend cutting tin foil to sharpen the punch. Does anyone know if this works for the Sizzix dies?

I don't know if it's always done it or not. She got it for Christmas & I only tried to use it last week for the first time & it was a problem. I would have taken it back if it were mine, but she's kind of shy about stuff like that.

Any ideas?

 

[pattyT]

try slipping a thin sheet of paper between the white pad and the machine as a 'shim' that should take care of it!

 

[Mickey's old friend]

On the larger dies you need to push it in only 1/2 way, push down, then move it the rest of the way and push down again. The shim is sometimes needed when you have a well used white pad.

 

[piratesmate]

Thanks! I'll try the shim. I do put the large dies in only half-way, cut, then slide it the rest of the way & cut again.

This leads to another question, though. What is "well-used"? The Sizzix was new at Christmas. I can see from the impressions in the white pad that she done each of her 6 dies several times & a bunch of letters. (She got the alphabet at the end of Feb for her birthday.) She tries to crop every week at least once & I think she might average 3x in 2 weeks. (Just to give you an idea of its use.)

Oh - and she is still working on the 1st side of the pad.

I wouldn't have thought the white pad needed to be turned already or that a side could only have that much usage. Any opinions? How often do you turn or replace?

 

[ek_disney]

I have had that problem with some of my dies as well. Sometimes I have two put multiple pieces of paper for the dies to work correctly. Not sure why...but it solves the problem.

 

[PamCo88]

I found with some of my letters this was happenning. What I did to solve the problem was carefully flip my finger over the slice to release the extra rubber in the area, it seems to fix the problems. I couldn't get a clean cut on my letters with centers. Just be careful not to cut your fingers.