How Paper Boxes Are Made / A practical and instructive book telling how the beginner may manufacture all kinds of paper boxes, with special chapters on the printing department for paper box plants, embossing, gold-leafing, label work, etc.

by Robert F. Salade

Steel die form from Simonds Mfg. Co.

On common-grade folding-box work, when the stock is heavy and tough, some die-makers use inverted cutting rules for scoring rules—usually old cutting rules which have lost their sharp edges by long service in other dies. By placing two 2-point inverted cutting rules together a 4-point crease is obtained. By placing three 2-point cutting rules together (inverted), a 6-point crease is obtained. Wide creases of this kind are needed only in heavy work, such as for example, suit boxes, flower boxes and hat boxes in large sizes.

A 2-point crease, or rather a fine crease obtained from standard 2-point scoring rule having a rounded face, will do well for the great majority of folding boxes.

BUILDING THE DIE

Now for the building of the die, say a die for cutting and creasing a carton for holding a medicine bottle: Take the “dummy,” or an old carton of the required size and form, and with the aid of a foot-ruler find out the lengths and number of pieces of rule which will be required for the die. Jot down the figures upon a tablet. For example, you will need four long pieces of 2-point scoring rule, all of the same length; four short pieces of 2-point scoring rule, all of the same length; then you will need four “L’s” for cutting flaps, these “L” pieces to have slightly rounded corners and to be made from soft steel cutting rule. Also will be needed two pieces of soft cutting rule which are to be bent in the form of a large “U,” these to be used for cutting the folding top and folding bottom of the carton. Other pieces of both scoring and cutting rule will be needed to make the die complete, and with careful application of the ruler, the correct lengths may be ascertained.

Carton for Cough Drops. Plain lines represent steel cutting rules. Dotted lines represent steel creasing rules.

After all of the various measurements of the rules have been taken and marked down on the tablet, the next step is to cut the rules on the steel rule cutter to the essential sizes, following the measurements which have been written down. The steel rule cutter is equipped with a movable gage and this gage is accurately set to provide for the cutting of each rule. A number of the rules are cut to the same sizes. Your figures on the tablet should tell how many pieces of each size are wanted. It is really a simple matter to cut the rules, but too much care cannot be taken in doing the cutting accurately.

The pieces of soft steel cutting rule which are to have rounded corners or odd shapes are now bent to the proper forms on a rule bending press, or with the aid of a vise. Extreme care should be taken in bending the rules in such a way that none of the bended lines are on an angle. In other words, each “bend” should be truly vertical so that when the odd-shaped rule lies in the die its cutting surface will be perfectly level. One of the great advantages of the steel rule bending press and its molds is that all rule bending on this machine is done perpendicularly true. An experienced die-maker can do wonders in rule bending with an ordinary vise and a pair of pliers, but the beginner will not find this work easy.