Step-by-Step Process of Using a Button Maker? Pro Tips
Button making might not seem like a craft for everyone, but you can definitely have some fun with it. They are easy and simple machines that anyone can use, even your young children, with some parental guidance.
For making presents for your friends and family members, making name tags for birthday parties, for bringing your favorite characters to life or for decorating your tote bags with your favorite quotes – these button makers can be used to do many fun things!
Using a Button Maker: Step-by-Step Process
The process of making a button in a button maker usually varies from model to model, but the initial procedure is quite the same. Almost all of these machines are manual and easy to use, and doesn’t require electricity or even batteries. You need to operate them by your physical strength, which isn’t required much, either.
Here are the tentative steps that you need to follow to use a button maker.
Step#1: Installing the Button Maker
Most button makers come fully assembled inside the box, especially if they are the small, handheld size. If the button maker you have chosen is a rather large one, you might have to assemble and install it yourself.
For most of these machines, assembling means a simple process of screwing the machine to the base. You can use your hands to do this usually in the first stage and then use the screwdriver that comes with the machine. The second step is to place the dies to the button maker machine, usually one at the bottom and one at the top.
Sometimes, the bottom part has two dies instead of one, but they come together in a set. Usually, these button makers with two dies at the bottom are the machine you need to make pin-back buttons, button key chains, bottle openers and rope ties.
Next comes installing the lever to the top part of the machine, which also needs the help of a screwdriver. That’s all you need to get your button maker ready to start working.
Step#2: Gathering the Button Parts
Almost all button makers come with all the button parts that you’ll need to make buttons. They may be a set of 100 button accessories or 1000 buttons, but usually all the parts come together.
There are usually three parts to a button: a metal piece, a myler transparent piece and a pin back. These are always circular and may come in a specific size, compatible with the machine.
If your button maker doesn’t come with any accessories or if you are buying a second hand machine, you can order more sets off the Internet.
Step#3: Printing the Design
This step requires you to print the design of your choice to be made into a button badge, a bottle opener or a key chain. You can use an ordinary printer and regular paper to do the job.
Use a photo-editing software to create the design, text or logo you want, or you can get something downloaded from the Internet; use the printer to print it as many times as you need, to make the required amount of buttons.
Any regular printing page would do, but if you use a high-quality paper, the pictures would come out better, and your button would look much brighter.
Step#4: Cutting out the Design
The design needs to be printed in the size of your button pin back, and then cut out in the same size. If you place a circular border around your design, you can use an ordinary pair of scissors to cut the design out. It will be faster if you can use a rotary cutter to do the job, and more accurate as well.
If you are running a button making business and need to finish a large amount of buttons in a short time, it is better to invest in a good rotary cutter that will automatically cut your pieces out in a shorter time than you can with your hands.
Step#5: Making the different types of Buttons
Now comes the actual step of making your buttons in your button maker. In one of the dies at the bottom (your instruction guide will let you know which die to use first), place the metal back.
The printed piece of paper goes next, with the design facing upwards, with its back to the metal plate. The myler or the plastic, transparent piece of film goes next on top of the design. All the pieces need to be aligned perfectly.
In the second die at the bottom, right next to the one when you have inserted the design, the metal plate and the transparent piece, put in the pin-back metal part of the button.
If you are making a keychain, bottle opener or anything else, you need to place the back parts of these accessories on the second die. The pin-back needs to be facing downwards, as are the bottle opener part.
When all the pieces are together, you have to pull on the lever with considerable strength, making sure that you have done so on the first die – the one with all three parts of the button inserted together. The top die will come down and put pressure on the bottom die.
When you let go of the lever, all three parts would have come together and disappeared into the upper die. The bottom die where you had placed the design and the other two parts would be empty. If all the parts are still there, it means you hadn’t put the required amount of force into the lever and would need to do it again.
Now, when the front part of the button has disappeared into the top part, move the dies so that now your top die is directly above the second die at the bottom, the one that has the pin-back or the bottle opener, or the keychain.
In case of a pin-back button, the pin needs to be aligned perfectly so that pin is at the top of the die, facing downwards. Repeat the act of pulling down the lever, and your top die will drop the already assembled button on to the back part and bind them all together.
The whole process takes only a few seconds if you have all the parts ready at hand.
Step#6: Finishing the Batch
The process is the same whether you are making a simple pin-back button, a mirror-back button, a key chain or a bottle opener. It’s only the back portion of the button that changes, and not the first three parts. You can use the same design to make batches of every kind of buttons with the same machine.
Some of the more sturdy button makers can make up to 200 to 300 pieces in under an hour, which is quite helpful if you run a business. The first few ones might take longer, but as you get into the rhythm, it will take anyone less than a few seconds to make a button.
A button making machine is actually a very simple piece of machine that you can use, that anyone can use. Since these machines are quite easy to understand and install, you can use it without any professional or technical knowledge.
Best of all, these are all manual machines and doesn’t require anything other than physical force, which means you can use it anywhere and anytime you want.
