Die Cutting With Aluminium Sheet

May 20, 2020

Die Cutting With Aluminium Sheet - An Experiment.

Something I have been wanting to try recently is die cutting aluminium sheet.

Being able to make embellishments for decorating home decor projects will be the end goal, today was phase one (testing). I sourced some good quality 0.125 mm soft sheet from the wonderful Peak Dale Products to work with. It is one they say works well for die cutting and is very soft. Am thinking about stocking it in the shop fairly soon. Also used a cutting die from Sweet Dixie (SDD263 Doily Six), household scissors to cut the sheet to size, pokey tool, black acrylic paint, brush & kitchen roll.

It was a case of trying things out as everyone's die cutting machine can work differently. I found sandwiching the die with the cut to size aluminium sheet and a piece of paper each side, plus my usual plates worked well. I also ran the die through three times as I used a very intricate design of Sweet Dixie's to try with. Definitely needed a pokey tool to help push out some of the tiny pieces and I did have a couple of areas that were very fine that didn't survive. I tried also with a couple of other dies (a little less intricate) some were less work than others. Once die cut the edges were smooth, not sharp, but I was still very careful, just in case. Once cut I wanted to bring out some of the detail further, so using black acrylic paint I roughly dabbed it on all over, allowed to begin to dry and then using a piece of kitchen roll, wiped some of the paint off.

This is a blog post I feel will definitely require a part two in due course. So when time permits will share a little more about what happens next, what might I make etc. In my head am thinking a hanging decorative plaque and some plant pot decorations, we shall see ?