My New Toy...

Here's what I can do with my new squasher! these are all brass or copper...
I had a great holiday!!! What did you get for Christmas?? I bet I can beat whatever it is... My brother (with help from his bro-in-law) made me a 12 ton hydraulic press for jewelry making!!!! woot!!! wooo hooo!!!!! yippeee!!!!! (wild, enthusiastic clapping with a wolf whistle thrown in ) The press is the black and red thingie on the right side of the picture.

Now my hubby needs to drill a couple of holes and bolt it to the table so it won't fall on my toes when I use it ( it weights 48 lbs) but that hasn't stop me playing with it!
This shows how pancake dies work.. they "pinch" the shape out of the metal.
Here is a pancake die between 2 plastic boards in full squash mode in the press.

I can also use if I'm careful sizzix dies. There are lots of stuff you can do with a press, for now I"m mostly going to be making my own blanks for jewelry.. Jerry wants to squash a watch in it, that might actually make an interesting piece of jewelry!!