[ David Dewey asked, in 131019 MMDigest :

> Which do people prefer: buying the pre-punched disks, or buying
> a skin and punching their own discs?  Which is more economical?

I've had some great replies, both on list and off list, many thanks,
all.  I never thought about calculating the area as a square, as
I would "honeycomb" the cuts to save material.  I gotta think outside
the box next time.  In this case, "close" is good enough -- and we're
not talking horseshoes or hand grenades! :)

As to avoiding the "bad spots" in the skin, I thought about that
(so the calculations have to include some area loss), but I figured
the supplier would do that to with quality control.  One should never
assume, eh?

Wad punches are apparently the same thing as arc punches, but seem
to be a bit less expensive in England; interesting.  Still, it will be
cheaper for me to turn something in my lathe, or make one out of sheet
metal and wood, as one responder showed me, a very clever idea!

As to cutting them with scissors, my arthritis would drive me crazy
after all that cutting.  Yes, it can be done, but not by me; I would
rather take the time to make the cutter.  I can sit and do some tedious
tasks (like rewind the armature in my toy train locomotive motor) but
think I'll pass on that one...

Ya just gotta love this list, there's so much knowledge here!

David Dewey