Avoid your templates "sliding around"

[Ornyal]

On 12/18/2022 at 8:46 PM, Danne said:

Some photos.

Hi Danne, I've read a few of your topics recently, and first of all I'd like to thank you for sharing so much of your work.

I am very fond of watchstrap making too, and I prefer padded straps (also I mostly get request for padded straps). 

So I would like to ask how you cut your straps, especially curved/not straight one (20-18mm, 18-16mm and such).

So far here is what I have tried :

• Pre-cutting every piece without keeping a trim allowance ---> Not great, especially on padded straps
• Pre-cutting the inner side, assembling with a comfortable trim allowance on the top side, and then cutting along the line of the inner side ---> actually what works best for me, but I think edges are still not perfect
• Keeping a trim allowance everywhere ---> that would give the cleanest edges but I find it rather hard to get clean cuts with the combo padding + curve

I should mention that I don't usually cut free-hand. I almost always use a metal ruler (I've stuck a few pieces of double-sided tape under it so it doesn't slip). But I admit that the ruler may not be the best option on curved watchstraps, it's just that I don't feel confident in getting perfect symmetry if I cut free-hand.

Any tip is welcome and if you have further question on how I proceed, please let me know (also don't mind my english, I'm not a native speaker so if I'm not understandable, feel free to let me know and I'll do my best to clarify).

[Frodo]

A site that sells art supplies and/ drafting supplies will have these

I use them to cut angles instead of free hand

 

[Ornyal]

Hi & thank your for your reply, just to clarify, I have no trouble getting a clean cut on the tip of the trap, I meant that on strap that are for instance 18/16, you loose 1mm on each side, so you have to cut at an angle, but it's a very small one (or big one, depends how you look a it). I usually cut with a ruler, but in this occasion it does get tricky.

[seabee]

Hi, I use Ruler Magic to hold templates and on back of rulers.

Howard

[CalgaryJim]

On 2/22/2023 at 4:07 PM, YinTx said:

Temporary/reposition-able adhesive?  (aka post it note adhesive)

I think this may be a version...

https://www.amazon.com/Aleenes-Tack-Over-Liquid-Glue/dp/B00178QQ84/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=post+it+note+glue&qid=1677106715&rnid=2941120011&s=arts-crafts&sr=1-2

 

Here's one of the negative reviews, with a lot of details:

"Abraham B

2.0 out of 5 stars Ruined fabric, failed to hold plastic to plastic, drying slowly--disappointed shopper

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2018

Number of Items: 1Verified Purchase

We bought this to try out in our community theater--sticking fabric to plastic and plastic to plastic. Before I ordered, I called Aleene's using the CS number their rep shared in several of the questions posted here. The young woman who answered the phone was surprisingly curt. Maybe their CS center, which answers the line under another company and then tells you they handle Aleene's, too, is a large generic center. Anyway, I told the rep what I was looking for a glue for and she seemed disinterested in what I was saying. Desperate for a glue that would work, I still ordered the product.

It arrived today & we rushed over to the center to try it out. First, when wet it's a white Elmer-like glue. I thought it dried quickly. I was wrong. We left the glue to "dry" for over 3 hours, but it remained white and liquid. We tried using it as it is on pieces we want to stay together indefinitely. It "bled" though our fabrics, staining them but not holding pieces together. And it made our plastics sticky without holding plastic to plastic. As I write this, nearly 11:30PM, I'm still waiting for the glue to dry (turn clear...).

All in all, I'll continue looking for a better product. We don't have time to wait half a day or longer for this glue to solidify/dry. And it turned out to be as messy as the old-fashioned Elmer's glue we stopped using millennia ago. When I was in school and we put on a show, we used "liquid cement" that was thick but clear and gelled very quickly (under half an hour) into a stable matrix. I wish I could find that product here on Amazon. I guess we'll keep the Aleene's for paper-on-paper glue needs, but other than that, we're very disappointed in this product. We had such high hopes.

UPDATE NEXT MORNING

The glue STILL hasn't set. It's still white and liquid. It's puddled along the base of the set pieces we used it on, creating a sticky, ugly mess. We tried vegetable oil then 85% alcohol to get the mess off. Then we tried extra-strength detergent. We finally got rid of most of the white liquid mess, but now our set pieces are ruined--fabric and plastic. And our hands are, of course, sticky and messy. This product didn't work for us at all. The only things it stuck to was our hands and the outside of surfaces it slobbered down.

6 people found this helpful."