I have been working on procuring the right tools to work on flap cards but one tool eludes me.

Shin Lim described a .002 mm hole punch that he uses, BUT I have yet to find that. The most common I have found is 1.5 mm.

I would rather use a punch as a needle would cause an "exploded hole" on the other side of the card. The hole punch would shear and cut the hole clean.

Leather punches get down to about 0.8 mm. Has anyone had experience with this or advice on a brand or where to procure a PinHole, hole punch?
Before anyone advises me, I have searched Amazon, been to Michaels, Joann's, and Hobby Lobby.

Thanks,
David "The Weary"

Have you checked out rotary leather punches? They have a series of punch dies in a circle that you move around for the various hole sizes. I use the smallest for making flap cards.

That has got to be a typo.

.002 mm is 2 microns. By comparison, a human hair is 88 microns.

Even if you found a punch that small (or even a needle), you would never be able to thread anything through it.

The smallest punch is probably a biopsy punch, but 1 mm may be the smallest you'll find.

You can find pin vice bits smaller than that, if you want to drill the holes.

From my experience, if you don't want the "exploded hole" as you call it, just reinforce the back side of the card with a block of wood or the cutting mat should work as well. They sell bass and balsa wood at stores like Michaels.

You may find making a small obvious hole may work against you over thinking your desired result.

Finding the correct needle would be a more prosperous endeavor.

Thank you for all of your suggestions! I am going to see about the leather punch at 0.8 mm. AND, if that doesn't work just punch a needle tip through a card with a cutting board as support. Thanks again everyone.

Finger drills.
http://www.micromark.com/finger-drills-7......285.html

I have a punch press with a lot of punches with an .02 clearance. There are some punches that have zero clearance. The biggest problem with that is removing the punch (stripping) sometimes the punch and die get stuck due to Washing or fast temperature changes.
Man other problem with such a small size is the material may be pushed open but as the die is stripped the material actually is drawn up and it closes somewhat.

The general formula is the tolerance between the punch and die should be about 1/3 the thickness of the material. In the case of paper, the correct term is "sacrificial material" as the second or third piece, on the bottom, which shreds microscopically (to noticeably) which helps keep the tolerances and integrity of the intended material close to specs.

(This is Probably too technical for most but, in the interest of being complete, I've been punching various materials from paper, to AL, steel, copper, plastic and other, for a good 50 long years)..... Too long, punching, bending, shearing, casting, molding, expanding, welding, adhering, shaping, riveting (a few styles) carving, mating, wire drilling and direct finishing or faux finishing l, and oh acrylic is included especially flame polishing which can be nerve wracking.

David - were you able to find this punch? I too am looking for one

--curtis

I have made my own flipper cards and had great success with the smallest setting on a rotary hand held leather punch.

Dan - what is the size of that hole on the smallest setting?

From what I can tell, a normal sewing needle makes a hole of approx. 0.8mm. I haven't been able to find any tool that goes that small. Even the Europunch tool that Shin Lim uses in his videos only goes as small as 1.2mm which might be fine for stage work but flashes in close-up.

My punch is about 1/6th of an inch, but it would depend on the manufacturer of the hole punch you get.