Need Some Help

[Bottomland]

I'm trying to make a mouth call tape cutter myself but I'm struggling a little bit on how the dye part is cutting. I know Thad makes a great tape cutter but I'm on a very tight budget and want to see if I can construct one  cheaply for the time being until I can buy one of thads. I've got his hand jig and love making calls but I can't stand hand cutting the tape.  Does anyone have a picture of the top dye part that is coming down doing the cutting?  Friend of mine has access to a CNC machine and I want to see if I can make this happen. Let me know. PM me if need be. Thanks a ton.

[Bottomland]

No help? Or maybe this will help me. Does anyone out there sell the tape already cut. I know the inner part is cut, but I'm trying to find some tape that is completely cut both inside oval and the outside.

[Lonehowl]

Im not much help, but Im sure if you look around on the net youll see some examples of simple dies that you can just stamp out shapes with, at least might give you some ideas.

I use to use a large washer, which you can sort of grind to a profile you like btw... and hold it against the call, and use scissors to cut up against the washer, cutting the tape to shape. Not perfect but ok.
Im sure with a cnc machine it would be easy to cut something to shape, sharpen it up and use a hammer to stamp out the tape to shape.

Hope that helps ya,
BTW...if you want some pics of my tape cutter, Id be glad to send a few.
Mark

[GobbleNut]

Like Lonehowl, I just use scissors to cut the tape.   I use a pill bottle cap that is just the right size for a template, center the cap on the call, take a pen and draw a line around the cap, and then cut with the scissors.  I have also contemplated just using an "exacto" knife to cut around the cap, which I think would work nicely and give a really clean, even cut,...but I have just not gotten around to doing that yet to see how well it works.  ...The scissors work just fine for me. 

[TRKYHTR]

Here is what I did before I got a tape cutter. I used to be a sheet metal man. So I bent a piece of sheet metal and made it so that a mouth call would fit down inside it. Then I marked out the size of call I wanted and cut it with my tin snips. All I had to do was place the call in it and take some scissors and cut around the metal. It worked but it's much easier with the tape cutter.

[TRKYHTR]

Here is a picture of the top and bottom of my tape cutter.

[Bottomland]

Thanks.  I appreciate the help.  i will post some photos if i get this make shift one operational.