Pay to have someone punch foam circles?

[Ayla of Duluth]

So thanks to my new (apparently full time when the ad stated it was part time) job, and also thanks to Kanti's tail making tutorials, I've set my sights on finally getting the supplies together to start making full silicone tails. The only thing that has held me back so far is punching the damn craft foam into circles for the scale sheet. I have tried every brand of circle punch, and I watched a video on youtube where the person said that to make the slot for the foam wide enough, they had to take special power tools to it. Well I'm sure not gonna do that. But I know there are a handful of you guys who have had success in punching out these foam circles, so I was wondering if anyone would be willing to punch me out enough of them to lay down a scale sheet. I'd be happy to pay for the materials and shipping, it should be rather cheap, and the rest of the money would just be for the time and effort the person went through, which is obviously expected. So that's all I need, just a few thousand foam circles.

Anyone up for it?

P.S.
You can take your time. Stuff like that sounds like it would be a pain in the butt.

[Phoenix Mermaid]

I was pondering about punching foam circles the other day. The foam seems so thick for those punches but I had a thought. How well would a circle cookie cutter on a hard surface work?

[Elle]

I'm about to go out and buy a second punch because my fiskars one is slowly getting crappier and crappier.
I found a very thin bastard file to file the inside of it down, and then some wet dry sandpaper to get rid of rough edges.
Apparently Martha Steward has a punch that is wide enough to do craft foam....but I'd have to have it sent over :(
There are sites where you can buy foam circles pre cut.......It might be cheaper than paying someone for their time. I'm not sure I haven't really looked into it.

[Jessica]

http://www.craftsuppliesforless.com/kidscraftsupplies_foamies1.html

I almost ordered foam circles from this site because it was such a hassle to punch them out, but I couldn't afford it.

Good luck!

[Mermaid Lorelei]

If you don't want to go through the hassle of dealing with punching the foam scales, you could always order silicone scale sheets. Then all you'd have to do is make your own fluke and then attach everything. (Unless of course, you're planning on making more than one tail.)

[Ayla of Duluth]

Actually, that's exactly what I'm planning on doing :) I've been wanting to make a ton of different styles of tails. Really my only talent artistically is making extremely elaborate projects. I think tail making would be a great thing for me to dive into, and I have the money for it, so hopefully this endeavor will be a success. :)

[Usagi]

Elle, are you using the dinky little fiskars pop-up punch? I had to buy 3 of those for the tail I'm currently working on (a year after I started, lol). All three were blah and eventually I got a great 3/4" punch by EK Success (off Amazon) and have been using it to punch out plastic and sadly, after thousands of scales, it is wearing down and becoming difficult to use ):

[Elle]

Elle, are you using the dinky little fiskars pop-up punch? I had to buy 3 of those for the tail I'm currently working on (a year after I started, lol). All three were blah and eventually I got a great 3/4" punch by EK Success (off Amazon) and have been using it to punch out plastic and sadly, after thousands of scales, it is wearing down and becoming difficult to use ):

I think it's a medium squeeze punch.....And it's annoying me so much cos I'm getting to the point where I'm only cutting one bit and the other bits are just getting squished and I have to tear them out.

[Mermaid Fenicia]

Try cutting on some aluminum-foil to sharpen it again ;)

[Jessica]

The fiskars pop up circle punch is great, but I had to buy 2 to make enough circles for my tail. If you shove a butter knife in the slot and leave it for several hours, the foam will slide in easily. Every time you punch a circle, make sure you check the slot for bits of foam. If the foam builds up, it won't cut properly. I just used the butter knife to poke the bits of foam out each time.

Don't leave the knife in all the time though. It will eventually hold the punch open too much and it won't punch the whole circle( I learned this the hard way).

Elle,

try pressing down on the outside edge of the punch when you squeeze the handle. It worked for me for a little while when my punch got dull, but eventually I had to buy a new one.

[Ayla of Duluth]

http://www.craftsuppliesforless.com/kidscraftsupplies_foamies1.html

I almost ordered foam circles from this site because it was such a hassle to punch them out, but I couldn't afford it.

Good luck!

Mum not sure how many circles I'd need, but I've heard people mention thousands, and by my calculations, 4,000 of them would cost $200 something dollars. Is that a reasonable price?

[Jessica]

Hi Ayla,

i didn't use 4000 for my scale sheet, I used about 2500. My scale sheet is about 52" x24". I wanted to have a seam on each side rather than one giant sheet with one seam up the back. If you want to make tails to sell, I would make your sheet a little wider than mine because I can't make a tail wider than 45". This isn't an issue for me because my hips are 35" and I didn't want to waste any silicone but it does limit me if I want to make a tail for someone else.


One thing you should consider before you spend so much money...I had a DISASTER with shell shock sticking to my foam circles. I think I can salvage my mold but its taking forever to pick bits and pieces of foam out. The shell shock stuck to the foam and its a real mess right now. If I could do it over I would simply make my scale pattern out of clay. I recommend monster makers---it's sulfur free, reusable and doesn't stick to shell shock if you use a release agent. I've seen your sculpted tail necklaces and they're beautiful! You obviously have the skill and the talent to sculpt a scale sheet and you could create a really unique pattern! When I have the time, I'm going to sculpt a new sheet out of clay.


if you scroll own you can see pictures of my scale sheet and what a mess it is here:

http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?5385-Hi!-Currently-working-on-full-silicone-tail&p=77764#post77764

[Ayla of Duluth]

Oh my goodness Jess, it looks like you had one hell of a time with your scale sheet. Did you use any release agent? I emailed smooth on about using shell shock on craft foam and they said definitely use a release agent, and if I'm ever not sure whether ill need a release agent for something, use one to be on the safe side. I'd consider sculpting my scale sheet out of clay, but even though I am good at sculpting, I'm terrible at uniformity, so my scales would all end up being different sizes and shapes and thicknesses.

[Jessica]

Hi Ayla,

i used manns ease release 200 from smooth on. I used over half a can on my sheet and it still turned out like that. The foam absorbed the shell shock so it really is an absolute mess.....the shell shock also ran in between and under some of the foam. Lorelei used 2 cans of ease release and had much better results on her scale sheet.

You can use foam and then buy monster makers clay to put over it. You can melt monster makers clay so it's runny and then pour it over your foam. This would prevent the shell shock from getting between your scales or under them. You still have to use a release agent over the clay. The best part about monster makers is that you can reuse it when you're done.

if you're using shell shock, use shell shock slow and not on a really hot day. The heat makes it thicken almost immediately! Don't bother trying to brush it on, just pour it and then use a cheap paintbrush to smooth it out if necessary. I also used fiberglass cloth in the middle of my mold for structural strength. It's cheap and it will help prevent your mold from cracking if you move it a lot. Don't use it until you have completely covered the scale pattern with shell shock. I put it right below my final layer of shell shock.

you can buy it here:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-Home-Solutions-9-sq-ft-Fiberglass-Cloth-20128/202077813#.UdMYT3y9KSM

You also don't need to build a mold box. I taped together 3 sheets of poster board, put the foam circles on that and then made clay walls around the sheet.

Here's a rather blurry picture of what I'm talking about:

[Jessica]

Ayla,

i forgot to mention that it cost me about $12 for foam and about $20 for two craft punches. It took a long time to punch all the circles, but I used the 1" punch. If you use a larger circle you could get it done much faster and use fewer circles. I just punched circles every time I watched tv and I got it done pretty quickly. I used the sticky foam which was harder to punch, but saved the step of gluing the circles down.

$200 seems pretty high considering how cheap I did mine, but it really boils down to the convenience of not spending hours punching circles.

[jazz2453]

For my sheet I used about 600 scales which were medium size. If you buy 20-40 packs of sticky back soccer balls (saves all the time of gluing the circles) which are about the same size I used and contain 55 soccer balls, then you'd only be spending about $50-$100 depending on how much you need. Link here http://www.craftsuppliesforless.com/kidscraftsupplies_foamiesstickerpacks.html You have to scroll down a bit. I regret not using this because I ended up spending about $60 on this step anyways (I bought 2 punches). Goodluck:)

[Aziara]

So what brands of punches have any of you tried and had success with? I just got a 1.5" circle punch made by the paper studio, can't fit the foam in whatever I try. Taking the screws out of the bottom does nothing.

[Mermaid Julz]

My punch wore out due to the plastic guides inside snapping. I had to resort to using the center punch piece and a hammer to tap to get the cuts. although it was a bit more work, my circles came out more round then slightly ovalish. It was a Fiskers punch. and yes, I had to grind down the insides... but a dremmel tool solved that issue fast. it all depends on what you are willing to spend and the time you have available to do it.

[BayouMermaid]

I found the most awesome punch (http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/1-circle-lever-punch-229427/) at hobby lobby and it was only $8! So far, I have punched out 1500 foam scales and it is still going strong. You have to get it in the jewelry section. It is not by the paper crafting supplies. I'm using 2mm foam, and it fits perfectly! So if finding a punch is putting anyone off of making a foam scale sheet, I strongly recommend looking at this one.

Link:

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/1-circle-lever-punch-229427/

[Mermaid Esther]

I could.... Or do you still have a different solution.... It's just that you would have to ship here and back

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Have you looked at a Compass Circle Cutter?
http://www.dickblick.com/products/olfa-compass-circle-cutter/

[BayouMermaid]

^Now that thing looks serious!

[Ashton]

That compass cutter does not work well with craft foam tho.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

FoamWerks Circle Cutter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhrPHUKLvN8