My 1 inch button press died halfway through a 50 pin order for a Portland zine fest
So last Thursday I was cranking out 50 buttons for this zine fest table in Portland, nothing fancy, just black and white text pins, and around pin number 23 the handle on my 1 inch press just went loose and stopped cutting the mylar clean. Turns out the spring in the die assembly had snapped, or at least that is what the guy at the supply shop told me when I brought it in. I had a show in two days so I could not wait on a replacement part, and of course the shop had zero 1 inch springs in stock, only the big 2.25 inch ones. I ended up hand cutting the mylar circles with scissors and pressing them one at a time so the die would not jam, which took me like 3 hours instead of 45 minutes. The edges looked kinda rough up close but honestly nobody at the table said a word. Now I am wondering if I should just buy a backup press or keep spare springs around. Has anyone else had a press die fail mid run and what did you do to get through it?