The Card Cutter

The Playing Card Trimmer

This is one of my little pet projects. I made this playing card cutter for a customer. He supplied the heavy shears and Cocobolo wood. I made the unit adjustable by a single knob, and made a stop so that a square setting could be set easily. The shears was very hard, and had to be drilled and countersunk with carbide tooling for the two flat head screws that held it to the block. The ends were trimmed with an abrasive wheel. The wood had a very beautiful grain, and machined (yes, I cut it on a Bridgeport) very well. The underside was hollowed out to allow for the nut assembly to be flush, and slide when the angle was adjusted. The side was beveled to match the side angle of the shears, allowing the blade to sit perpendicular to the work surface. The guides were made from aluminum, and had a brass insert for a smooth action. This cutter is similar to an Evans Card Shears. Card cutters are used to make "stripper" and "wedge" decks. Strippers have one side of some cards trimmed squarely and wedges are done on an angle, so that they can be sorted while shuffling or dealing. Many magic decks are made this way. Heavily trimmed cards will require re-rounding of corners. The first photo shows a card being "wedged" on the side. The other two photos are showing a card being "stripped" on the short side. Enjoy, but remember that all images are the property of TABco Industries.

  I am in the process of making a couple dozen of similar card cutters, that will incorporate a mechanism for making concave cuts on the sides of the cards.  If you think you may be interested in such a device, please write to me at tabco@comcast.net and I'll keep your address handy for when they are ready.  This is a long range project, and my time is not as free as I'd like, so don't expect a cutter any time soon.  It will probably be close to the end of this year (2003), at the soonest before any of the lot are done.

   (July 2003)  Bad News, Due to reasons beyond my control, the card cutter project is on hold, indefinitely.  If you still want to send me your name and email address to keep on hand in case this ever gets restarted, feel free to do so, but as of now, I have stopped working on the project, and do not know if I will ever be able to complete it.    Also, I will not supply plans or drawings, as the idea I was working on (to do special cuts) is a patentable idea, and my plans are still to patent this new improved cutter, even without a working model.     

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