flex 1000
Hi Button Guy,
We purchased the Flex1000 press and finally had some time to try out making buttons. We started with 2.25″. The press we have is somewhat different than the one in the videos
Our best button was one that sort of went together but fell apart after 5 minutes of use. We identified a few possible areas for error. Maybe you can give us some pointers regarding what we are doing wrong.
1) We found the cutter made circles that are just slightly too big. We corrected for that be doing extra careful trimming and this seemed to help.
2) There are three plastic rings in the 2.25 die whereas the 3″ die does not have any. The booklet talks about using 1 plastic ring. We tried with three and it didn’t work. When we tried with one we got a button that lasted 5 minutes. Should we be using the plastic rings?
3) Any other pointers you can give us?
4) Is there a particular weight of paper we should use? We are kind of frustrated.
Sorry to hear you’re frustrated.
Here’s a video that shows the machine you have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUFjU1MNYiY
- The paper circles are supposed to be bigger than your button shell because they will wrap around the shell as the button is pressed together. You do need to be careful when cutting the paper circles and make sure the cutter doesn’t move positions on the paper. The mylar and paper circles will fit very tightly in the left die tray and there should not be much wiggle room.
- The 3″ die does not come with a plastic ring. It should work without the ring. It is just the 2-1/4″ die set that needs 1 ring (and you have 2 extra included in case you lose the ring).
- If you are still having troubles check out the videos email me pictures of the buttons you made and that will help out a lot in trying to figure out a solution.
- A standard, 20lb paper will be fine. The machine may have trouble with thicker paper (photograph paper), as it could have difficulty crimping around the pin-back
Also, there is always some spoilage or button mistakes when hand pressing buttons. So the FlexPress will not work perfectly every time.