Can anyone recommend a good way to make DF cards? I want to create DFed ESP cards, and I'm hoping someone can suggest a good glue to use.

I use Elmer's Rubber Cement. Walmart sells it fairly cheap. Works great! If you can split cards, you can make some excellent gaffs. That way the thickness is the same as an ordinary card. If thickness is not a concern, just glue them back to back.

I disagree with rubber cement as it is too flexible. Go to a photo store and buy some dry mount tissue. Cut it to the size of the cards and put it between them, then use a hot iron to seal them together.

Pete's right.
And if you want to do it absolutely top drawer, you need Todd Lassen's Card Gaffing Genii:

http://www.toddlassen.com/coins/lrg/card_gaft.jpg

Antony Gerard sells Tack Pads with his Card A-Tack routine that work really well for making DF cards like you want. He also has several routines using them like that. They will stay together until you want to take them apart (if you had wanted to do that for some reason).

Darnit Tom, you took my post

Yeah, tack pads work wonders.

I just use a glue stick after I split them, and it works fine for me. It lasts about the length of 3 decks, then I just make a new one. That's just what I do.

How do you split them?

I agree with Pete and Silverking. Get the card gaff genii by Lassen and it will make all your cards look 1st class.

For that you get your hands on Marty Martini's "The Art of Splitting Cards" DVD, pretty much the only one of its kind out there.

Practice with some cards you don't mind ruining. Tap the corner of the card onto a table top until the corner of the card edge begins to seperate into its 3 layers. When this happends, begin to peel the side/face you don't want to keep away from the rest of the card (that is, peel one of the three layers off). Once you get this peeled off, do the same for the next card. So you end up with your two cards you want to glue together. You can remove any excess paper that didn't peel off by sticking a piece of good quality packing tape to the card, press on firmly and pulling it off until your basically at the middle of the card. Glue them together with your glue of choice. I use a glue stick, it works great. Then I run/roll a pen across the card after applying glue to make sure there is good contact between the cards. Place in a book until it's dry. If it comes out slightly warped I found that if you keep it in a deck until you use it that it will stay flat until needed. If it really warped, start over and try again.

Here's another vote for Marty Grams' "Art of Card Splitting" DVD. I recommend supplementing this with his "Lickety Split" notes. Together, they provided all I (think I) needed to know. You'll likely find multiple schools of thought regarding his method (dry split versus wet split, rubber cement versus dry mount versus stick tack, etc...) but it works well for my purposes.

In Marty's DVD "The Art of Card Splitting" he reccomends using rubber cement, and actually reccomends which rubber cement to buy that works best. I have never tried any other method, and have had great results with using rubber cement.

With that said, I will definetly try Pete's suggestion and buy some dry mount tissue. Im always looking to improve any methods Im currently using.

Sorry, what is a Tack Pad? Where can I get it, as I live in Germany?

Thanks,
Christian

That MIGHT cause a problem, I'm not sure.

http://www.gerardenterprises.com

Perhaps this website will have the information you seek. Otherwise, he's on his board, too, so you could probably shoot him a Private Message or something.

Sorry I can't be more help.

I believe Don England also has a great card gaffing video out. I contains much of the info that Marty's has, but he does offer some of his trademark tips and tricks for card splitting and gaffs.

Snidini

Snidini:

Do you have a title or reference for the Don England video? I am not having much lucky in tracking it down.

Thanks!

Michael

Hmmm. I have tried dry-mount tissue, but I found that when I used that the card felt ever so much thicker, but more dramatically... it became sort of soft and there was no "FAP!" in it.

I have experimented a little with glues/cements found here in Norway, but with no luck so far. The glue stick left little lumps of glue, which made the card a bit lumpy. And the adhesive cement especially for paper halfway soaked through and made the cards look very dirty. I have also tried a cement for splicing film, but that was completely wrong.

You guys have inspired me to try again, and the quest continues to a hobby store as soon as I'll have the time. Probably no Elmo's sold here, though.
Also, my Exacto knife has disappeared again for the 9 billionth time. All I have here now are inexactos. Also, I wish I hadn't sold my nice heated photo dry-mount press. I'm sure that would have worked well. I wonder if an ordinary household clothing iron could work? I haven't actually ever used one of those things, but they make things flat, don't they?

I found that instead of tapping the corner to spit the layers, I just take a pair of tweezers and bend a bit of the corner back and forth. Then, they separate pretty easily.

I got cards I peeled last night in a card press/clamp as I type, heh. Was going to glue them up later tonight.

Wouldn't the mount paper effect the thickness of the gaffed card? I am making DFs. I just peeled the backs off one set of cards, and the faces off of another set.

Or I found that if it is the face or back that you need, it is easier to get it off cleanly if you peel off the back first. Say I need the face, and then peel the face from just the middle section, rather than peeling the face from the middle section as well at the back.