The Classic Card Trimmer Revised

[Guest]

Hello All,
I have been working on a card trimmer invention that won't break the bank. I happen to be one of the lucky few who have the vintage early 20th Century card trimmer. That you see here at this website. http://www.jamesriser.com/Magic/Card/Trimmer.html
As you can imagine, it cost me a pretty penny to buy ($1700) and quite a bit of time to locate (3 months).
The original patent on this item had expired and with my improvents to the cutting and adjustment mechanism I have finally reached the patent pending stage with the US Patent office. Now comes the delema that I am looking for opinions on.
The current prototype being speced out is made of Aluminum with a steel cutting mechanism. In lieu of brass used on the original (too expensive). I want to make a durable product (That can make sellable gaffed decks for the owner) and in doing so the manufacturing costs go up. I am now for the second prototype considering using a high density plastic for the base surface. (Similar to the material used on modern kitchen cutting boards or maybe Corian like). How interested would you (the reader) be in a $200-$300 trimmer made of high grade plastics, versus a $400-$500 aluminum based model? Both models feature a steel cutting mechnism that can be replaced, the Aluminim version would have a non-marring bottom, both would have a table clamp mechanism. [Confused]
There is a very cheap (poor materials) template based card trimmer out there that is called Line-Lo that cost $99 but for the quality I want I can't meet that price point until the volume I manfacture increases. And based on quality chances are slim that I could get below $200.

[Don Wilson]

I just had our kitchen sinks redone with the new corian type plastic, and it is great-won't scratch with a sharp knife, is granite like in texture, and surely would stand up to use as a base for a trimmer. The price of 2-300 $ should be a better market than alum at twice the price. Most people buying a trimmer would be using it for their personal use rather than for commercial large quantity card decks, especially if under $300. Keep us posted! Don

[CardMaker]

Very interesting. Very very interesting.
I'd prefer aluminium, but high-tech plastics would do the job too!

Please keep me informed.
I'd like to see photos of it. You can email me!

[Scott Fridinger]

I am sure whatever you make it from you will not sell it unless it is off the top quality. I just recently made a "short" deck and did not even know you could round the corners like that, or that there was a device you could purchase. I think at the lower end price you will sell more, even if it is plastic vs. aluminum. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Scott

[Jason England]

Jim,

I've been looking for a good Will and Finck, Mason and Co. or Graham cutter and rounder set for some time. As much as I'd like to have a set like that, I'd just as soon buy your new cutter, since I'll definitely want it to work with, and not just sit on a shelf somewhere.

I'd pay for either an excellent aluminum or sturdy, high-density plastic model.

Jason England

[Jim Riser]

Guys;
WhaBAM (whoever that may be) merely used my site to illustrate the classic card trimmers. I am NOT involved in this project nor do I see anything I'd consider worth patenting on the cutters other than possibly a completely new blade system. A patent on the old system would be very difficult to enforce, since it can easily be shown that the cutters have been around for at least 150 years and made by a variety of manufacturers - the most recent model sold by Joe Stevens. If I were making new cutter sets, they would be made from tool steel and brass. I am not making such cutter sets, so please do not ask me to hold one for you. I have too many other projects coming up. Again, I am NOT involved in this project; but thanks for the "vote of confidence".
Jim

[Pete Biro]

Alan Zagorsky, at Owen Magic may still have a few left. I had one like the one picutred in the Time Life Book "The Gamblers" with the Ivory handle.

But, the scissor's type is far and away the best.

[Guest]

Hello All,
I want to clarify that Jim Riser is NOT involved in this project just as he said I was merely using his website as an illustration of the original trimmer. Jim is correct the improvements have been made in the area of the blade / cutting mechanism but also in the adjustment mechanism and some clamping ideas have mbeen added to compensate for the use of lighter materials. The machinist and I are looking at two areas. For this cutter. 1. Selling the cutter (as described earlier) and 2. Selling the plans with illustrations of the machining process, material's required etc. It's been my experience that a machine shop is easy to find. The cost of producing only a single unit is high as it wastes machine time and materials. The major costs to me thus far have been in the engineering and draftsmen work. Pictures are forthcoming hopefully within a week or so. I'm focused on the illustrations / pic of the building process for the next few days.

[Jason England]

Sorry for the misunderstanding Jim.

Naturally, I'm still interested in a cutter.

Jason

[Jim Riser]

Jason, no problem. This is a great project and I hope all goes well with it. I posted above to clear things up as I was getting email asking me to hold a cutter set for several magicians. So, I wanted people to know that I was not making these. Using my site to illustrate the old cutter set is fine. I wish WhaBAM all the best. The very limited market makes such an item difficult to produce at an attractive price. I fully understand the problems and expenses involved in producing this item and appreciate WhaBAM asking for input. I'm looking forward to seeing his end product.
Jim

[Guest]

Hello All,
I just wanted to give an update on this project/product. We've finalized the materials for the cutter. The base will be made of Aluminum that will be grey anodized (hardened). The blade will be made of heat treated tool steel. We tried the plastics and they warp during machining so rather than heading toward the plastics that are space shuttle grade and cost MORE than aluminum we've simply gone with aluminum.

Now for the kicker...we are integrating a 1/8" corner rounder into the base. This means you will be able to cut your card and round the card with the same tool. We're engineering this portion into the plans as I write this. If you want to be kept abreast of the project and release date. Send me an email cardcutter@mac.com dealer inquiries are welcome as well.

[Bill Mullins]

Is a 1/8" corner rounder the right size? I thought the radius for a playing card corner is closer to 1/5" inch, or maybe 5mm.

[Pete Biro]

Yes 1/8"

[Guest]

Hi Bill,
I've always been under the impression that it was 1/8" I've successfully used 1/8" on the cards that I've trimmed before. (However this doesn't mean that you are not correct.) In order to prevent the need to manufacture the actual corner cutting blade. (VERY Difficult and time consuming) We had to go to a commercially available blade i.e. 1/8" for the corner cutting portion. I think 1/5th (or 1/4) is used on those picture corner rounders that you can get from the craft store. Again I could be wrong. Anyone able to help Bill and I out on this.

[Guest]

Thanks Peter!

[Eric Rose]

Will all the cutting surfaces be renewable? How many sharpenings will they withstand before they have to be replaced, and will replacement parts be available?

[Guest]

Hi Eric,
Yes the blade will be replacable and since it's made of tool steel and detachable via screws it can be sharpened by yourself. The steel will be heat treated (very hard) so it's doubtful that you'll need to replace the blades any time in the near future. That being said we will definetly have spare blades.
I also wanted to give a huge thank you to those individual and dealers who have sent me emails expressing interest in this project. This is working out great for us because the more interest that we have the more we can schedule to produce the lower the production cost which results in savings to you.
So keep those inquiries coming I will send out bi-weekly updates and progress pictures to those who send me an email at cardcutter@mac.com I will be working on a website in the next few days to a week to display the product and progress. Once again dealer inquiries are welcome.

Thanks!
-J. Cooke

[Guest]

Hi folks,
This project is still moving along. I want to thank the folks who are emailing ( cardcutter@mac.com ) me with interest. Please continue to send inquiries. I wanted to take a minuite to answer the most frequently asked question.

Q: What kind of cards cuts are possible?
A:
Short Card
Narrow Card
Standard Strippers
End Strippers and
Belly Cut - the great part of the belly cut ability is that you can pick which cards are belly cut and witch are simply narrowed. Most off the shelf belly cuts are done with the Aces bellycut or some other four of a kind. Now you can do your own Belly in any suit or any card. Which gives you a lot more flexability in getting creative.

In other words...ANY cut at almost ANY (reasonable) angle. The angle is adjustable and can be set to your preference for feel and visibility of the strip/cut.

Q: Will it be easy to use?
A: Yes, probably the most complex cards to make are the Belly Strippers, beyond that it should be smooth sailing for any common gaffed decks (Svengali etc.)with the flexibility to custom create your own.

Q: The product release process. WHere are you with that?
A: The current challenge facing us is integrating the corner rounder without making the device too big or too bulky. We may have to release a version 1.0 of the cutter come with a seperate 1/8 corner cutter included but not integreated into the base. The reason is two fold...One, is weight it's definetly getting weighty (about 3-4 lbs) we want to keep it below 4 pounds for international shipping cost control reasons. The second reason is ease of use with the corner cutter integrated. If it's on top it could be viewed as "in the way" the other option is to have the base be flipped over with the corner cutter on the bottom...This would probably require stand-offs, which may get in the way as well...We are brainstorming on this design constraint right now. However, We don't want to stall this project too much with this design issue. So we may integrate it as a seperate upgrade attachment later in Phase 2...then a fully integrated corner rounder version in phase 3. Any opinions on this approach?


-JC

[Guest]

Just got past the prototype and we're finally into the production process

A little background on this project...
The Card Cutter Chronicles

[Stefan Sprenger]

Hi,

any news on the project!????

Greetings from Germany

Stefan

[Bill Mullins]

I notice from your webpage that you are patenting your work. For a patent to be issued, the invention has to be "novel" (new). What's new about what you are doing??

[Jason England]

Just curious what the status of the project was.

Jason

[Stefan Sprenger]

Any updates yet!?

[ggarcia]

Any updates? I'm still interested in one.

[Guest]

As am I. Any word on when it will be available?

[Guest]

did this project die???