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Hi all. I wanted to know if anyone had experience with the larger circle cutters? I need to cut circles 23" and up. I have found several:

Fletcher circlemate II
Toyo circle supercutter
Cutters mate
Silberschnitt

What works, or doesn't?


Thanks,

Dick

I have the 24" Silberschnitt (purchased from BE).

Its probably my favorite glass tool from the perspective of being solidly constructed and doing what it is intended to do exceptionally well.

- Paul

Dick, I use the Silberschnitt. It is well constructed and not overly expensive.

There are two things I don't like about it that may or may not be avoidable or important to you. One, the suction cup will not stick if the glass is too textured or wavey. BE single rolled...forget it. Two, it comes with a turret of six steel wheels and I would prefer a carbide wheel. I don't like the way the steel wheels score. It may just be an idiosycrisy of of mine.

The Hobbyist...............................Jim

Dick

I have the Toyo and I love it. I really don't like the old Silberschnitts with the rotating 6 wheels. Bohle makes a good one also with a wheel similar to the Toyo. I think that you get what you pay for with these, except that I feel the Toyo is the better value. Get the tap wheel.

What I lust after is the big oval cutter. They are very spendy.

Bert Weiss wrote:Dick

I have the Toyo and I love it.

Moreover, the Toyo is sexy. (Hey, I mean design-wise, wiseguys...)

PDXBB

Thanks. I like the design of the toyo, and prefer carbide over steel. It is just nice to find out if anybody really does not like one. The toyo is more money, but looks worth it. I am not sure about the fletcher. It is less, but I don't always like to go for the lowest price. The cutters mate seems good, but is pricey unless it works great.


Still deciding

Dick

Dick,

I have a fletcher, among others, and other than using it for maybe a door stop, I would not buy it. The suction mechanism on it broke after two circles. It is poorly designed in my mind. I got it replaced for free but I don't use it, even for ovals. I've got a silberschnitt and it works pretty good but I would agree on the discussion of carbide vs steel.

Phil

I have an inland which can join Phil's Fletcher as a doorstop... and I'm not sure it would do that well either. The only good thing about the Inland is that I can use it with an X-Acto knife or a pen for cutting or drawing large circles. I really like my Silberschnitt, but it has its drawbacks. The lack of a carbide wheel is one and another is that the bar seems to be getting looser, so I'm not always finishing my cut where I start... I like the sound of the Toyo myself, and will probably try one.

Tony

Carbide replacement cutter head for the Silberschnitt

http://www.stallingsglass.com/Merchant2 ... e=2049TC7H

Save some money

http://www.glasscrafters.biz/Merchant2/ ... y_Code=cut

Speaking of drawing circles.(Tony was), does anyone have a pair of compasses that will hold a Sharpie? I have a number of little-to-medium lovely steel engineer's compasses. They are designed for people who don't want to actually see the line that they draw, because they're furnished with rock-hard little pencil points. You can switch them over to a drafting pen that you can dip carefully into a speedball ink (that you always have conveniently on hand), but I'd prefer a Sharpie, so I can use it on glass or wood or whatever. I find myself taping the Sharpie to a stick to draw a lousy circle.

Back on topic, I use a Toyo circle cutter. I bought an extra steel bar for it so that I could cut one of them down to 12". Makes it more managable.

Don Burt wrote:Speaking of drawing circles.(Tony was), does anyone have a pair of compasses that will hold a Sharpie? I have a number of little-to-medium lovely steel engineer's compasses. They are designed for people who don't want to actually see the line that they draw, because they're furnished with rock-hard little pencil points. You can switch them over to a drafting pen that you can dip carefully into a speedball ink (that you always have conveniently on hand), but I'd prefer a Sharpie, so I can use it on glass or wood or whatever. I find myself taping the Sharpie to a stick to draw a lousy circle.

Back on topic, I use a Toyo circle cutter. I bought an extra steel bar for it so that I could cut one of them down to 12". Makes it more managable.

DB,

I'm pretty sure the inland will hold a full size Sharpie. I know I've used it with the fine-point Sharpie... and it's better than a stick.

Tony

A beam compass does a great job drawing circles, and works well in 3-D too. I used to index dome-shaped fiberglass molds for lamp making with it. You can add a cutter to cut paper and thinfire, too.
Has anyone used an oval glass cutter? Are there any out there except Fletcher's?
Tool Junkie Nikki

Don Burt wrote: I find myself taping the Sharpie to a stick to draw a lousy circle.

Hi db... I do that as well, only I tape it to a ruler.
BB

Thanks Ron, you are amazing.

I did a search for this part the other night and came up empty. When you decide to teach some classes be sure to add Internet searching to the list.

The Hobbyist.......................Jim

Yes the Inland circle cutter will hold a big Sharpie pen. And how about this giz.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/toolsplus/d ... -etc-.html

Ron

Ron Coleman wrote:Yes the Inland circle cutter will hold a big Sharpie pen. And how about this giz.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/toolsplus/d ... -etc-.html

Ron

This thingie is what I use... not necessarily the same maker... But i attach it to a ruler. The ruler I used was too fat for it, so I taped it on...

Barbara

Wow, 23 inches and up is pretty big. At that size the rigidity needed for a rotating cutter gets difficult or expensive. You dan't say how many of these you need to do, or what your expected investment level is.

I'm happily cutting 12" circles with an $8.00 homemade device, and if I had to go bigger, I'd build a bigger one. One of these days I plan to do a photo story on it, but in words, it goes something like this:

I have the flimsey little circle cutting device which is part of the Morton System. This consists of a little rotating platform and a guide to hold an ordinary glass cutter of your choice. It's nice for 3 to 4" circles.

To build my 12" cutter, I bought a "Lazy Susan" bearing of the sort used by woodworkers. I mounted it on a chipboard base, and mounted a 13" chipboard circle on top. I put a rubberish mesh shelf cushion on top to prevent slipping. On the base I mounted a wood block to create higher level, then a sliding arm made of steel bar with a rectangular hole into which the cutter can be placed. The hole in the bar can be adjusted to any position between the center and the outer diameter of the disk.

You cut a glass square, place it on the rotating table, put the cutter in the hole, then rotate the glass under the cutter. Since I'm holding the cutter in my normal cutting hand, pressure, etc. as "as usual."

No problem finding new cutter wheels, etc. And if you let others use it, they can use their own cutters instead of screwing up yours.

I looked in the BE catalog at the circle cutters. There is one that is very expensive and attaches to the table. Then there's a much less expensive cutter that's a Silberschnitt. Is that less expensive circle cutter what you Silberschnitt users have? (Anyone have the monster that attaches to the cutting table?)

Then there's the portable Toyo in the BE catalog. Is that the Toyo you Toyo users have?

I'm considering a circle cutter as well since my B. Brandt model is somewhat flakey.

- Bev

Bev Brandt wrote:I looked in the BE catalog at the circle cutters. There is one that is very expensive and attaches to the table. Then there's a much less expensive cutter that's a Silberschnitt. Is that less expensive circle cutter what you Silberschnitt users have? (Anyone have the monster that attaches to the cutting table?)

Then there's the portable Toyo in the BE catalog. Is that the Toyo you Toyo users have?

I'm considering a circle cutter as well since my B. Brandt model is somewhat flakey.

- Bev

I have the large base mounted circle cutter. It was expensive but worth it if one was doing production cutting rather then just a few at a time. It has a carbide wheel mounted in roller bearings and cuts perfectly every time as there is'nt a suction cup to worry about. It cuts big circles and you can buy different degree wheels to cut either art glass or float. Other then that, I also have the Silberschnitt 24" that Ive replaced the piece of @$%# 6 turret cutting wheel with the single wheel Toyo carbide cutter that Ron has nicely provided some great links on earlier in this thread. As a testimonal, Ive used the Toyo carbide cutter on my strip cutter since 1996 and it still cuts like butter after literally thousands of strips being cut.....Doug