die cutters--hole punches--various paper cutting machines--help!

United States
March 7, 2011 4:29pm CST
I need to cut very precise, very small shapes into paper. I've looked around at various craft stores, and I've found the Elite Slice, Crikut, and several other machines but they don't look like they can cut as small as I need. Based on the packaging, it looks like the minimum dimensions they can cut is 1 inch. I need something that can cut as small as 1/2 inch. Does anyone know of a die-cutter that cut that small?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
9 Mar 11
I have a cricut...and it does cut pretty small...other then that I don't know. I have tons of punches etc. Some of those can be pretty small..what shapes are you trying to cut out?
1 person likes this
• United States
9 Mar 11
All kinds of things. I'm being intentionally vague, because it's a new idea for a relatively old technique, and I want to be the first to use it. Numbers, names--if I could get the whole name to be less than 1/2", holiday shapes like hearts, shamrocks, bunnies, eggs, etc. That would be a lot of hole punches to buy, and I've been having trouble finding small enough ones. Is there a good website that has small punches? I've found tons of punches that are 1" and up.
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
9 Mar 11
Michaels craft stores sells tons of little bitty ones...and I mean little ones! Check them out.
1 person likes this
@palonghorn (5479)
• United States
8 Mar 11
Depending on what shapes you are wanting to cut, and how often you are going to use it, I think your best bet would be to go to a craft store, Micheal's, Hobby Lobby, etc. and look at the paper punches. They have them now that will cut all shapes and sizes. Good luck. I do have a cricut, and the smallest it will go is 1".
1 person likes this
• United States
9 Mar 11
First hand user experience helps. That rules out cricut for me. I've thought of hole punches, but ideally I'd like something more customizable.
1 person likes this
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
8 Mar 11
you could check out ebay but i think that you might want to look not at a craft store, but at a tool and die maker. maybe you can get one made. check out your local yellow pages, you might get some ideas from there.
1 person likes this
@Suzieqmom (2755)
• United States
29 Mar 11
I think your best bet is a punch--they are very inexpensive--some of the ones at Michael's that punch the smallest sizes are only a dollar a piece. You could get a lot of them and still have variety for a fraction of the cost of a die-cutting machine. They make border punches, too, which punch out holes the size of a pin hole.
• United States
10 Apr 11
I think I found my answer--Silhouette SD from silhouetteamerica.com. Customizable, shapes down to a half inch, multiple substrates. The price is steep, but it does exactly what I want. Thanks everyone for your input!
@joystick (1675)
7 Mar 11
I have used my friends sizzix machine that is a die cutter and you can get all sizes of die cuts to use with the machine.It depends if you are going to use it all the time, as the die cuts and the machines that you can get are some times very expensive.Good luck i hope you find what you are after.
• United States
9 Mar 11
What's the minimum size that the sizzix can cut? I remember looking at that online, but I can't remember if it had a minimum size.