Badge/button Maker? best one for a cheap price?

[LIZ]

hi i want to make some badges/buttons.. what is the best one for a cheap price out there? i have soo many ideas ^__^ does anyone on here make badges? if so can you tell me about how and what you make them for? what are your favorite kind of badges do you make? 

Edited September 10, 2017 by LIZ

[SingSong]

I actually attempted some button making myself a few years ago. If you want to make professional-looking buttons on your own, I recommend Tecre. https://www.americanbuttonmachines.com/collections/popular-button-maker-sizes

This machine works really smoothly and takes only a few steps to create a button.

 

This video shows the process of creating art for the button: (Tecre's website has templates for the different button sizes)

 

Can't remember how much I paid for mine. I think it was around $140 or $160 on Ebay for a 1.25" button maker with a lot of extra pieces for making buttons. Ebay's probably your best bet in finding a cheap one. The ones on the actual website are closer to $300. You can get spare parts on Ebay, too, for making more buttons. Any button maker under $100 is likely to create buttons of low quality.

 

If you're serious about making buttons, here are a couple things to consider.

Most button makers are made for one size only (there are some brands that have interchangeable docks but I have read that those button makers produce a worse result). So you have to choose one size. If you want a large size like the size of pins you see at political rallies, 2.25" is about right. 1.25" is the best for the small kind of pins you see on backpacks or people's shirts or hats. 1" is really too small, and I think it's hard to get a good amount of detail to be visible with that size. And there are 3" button makers, but those are pretty enormous, comparably.

You may want to get a circle cutter. This is a tool that will cut a perfect circle around your printed button art so you don't have to use scissors (that can get really time consuming and frustrating after 50+ buttons). This is the one I had:

 

Tecre has its own circle cutter which is about 10x as expensive but really awesome. I couldn't justify buying it myself though.

 

Also, be sure that your printer can print out crisp images, otherwise you'll have to take your art to a professional printing place instead. My printer at the time was garbage, so my 1.25" pin art came out like a blurry mess, and I lost interest. I only ended up using the button maker to make buttons from magazine cut-outs. Hah.

 

Anyway, I hope that helps some. The kind of buttons I like are band buttons, ones with funny/pun sayings, and ones with cool art on them.

Edited September 10, 2017 by SingSong

[Pepper-Head]

I think @SingSong really hit the nail on the head with all that info!

I got my button maker a few years back on eBay. I remember it being really hard to get one within my price range, since they were in hot demand (probably still are haha!)

I think I lucked out and bought mine for about $80 (I see the same one but new for $200 on ebay now, I just got lucky with an auction) but it's a lot larger than most buttons sold at conventions. I think it's 2" or 2.25". It came with a TON of blank materials too and I've barely used it  It was really fun to bring to art trade day at my college's club  and was a big hit!  I've grown fonder of the larger size as well, it really does allow for more detail.

Kicking myself because it came with a circle cutter, but it looks a lot different and I couldn't figure out what it was for so it's probably in some random box in storage  It would make your life 100% easier with a button maker though, since the press could mess up the button if the paper isn't cut right.

 

Edited September 10, 2017 by Pepper-Head

[LIZ]

thank you guys for all the help!  the prices are way over my budget though. maybe i will luck out too and find one for a good deal, ^__^ 

Edited September 10, 2017 by LIZ

[Pear]

Oh hey, I actually have one of these haha. I bought mine from Dr. Don's, if I believe correctly. :3 I think it was over 100$ for a 1" pinback button maker when I bought it a couple years ago, but now it looks like it's skyrocketed. o.o"

http://www.buttonsonline.com/

It's a great quality though. :3 However, I do kinda wish I had bought a larger one. The 1" size is cute, but it's not so great for good details x3

[Martyn]

@LIZ
I hope you don't mind me asking, but what quantity of buttons were you looking to make?
And what budget do you have? As very often batch ordering them can be cheaper than getting the machine and you get the option of varying sizes.

[LIZ]

i never thought of that,  thank  you! is there a place were you can get them made, i know you can get them at zazzle, but is there another place that is cheaper?

[Martyn]

@LIZ
Depends on where you are, cause of different vat/tax laws.
But if you're in the USA there is a number of places that do batch orders, say if you order 50 buttons then you can get them for $0.50 each. It works out to be pretty cheap overall and allows you to customize both size and sometimes shapes (some places do ovals, rectangles or squares).

[LIZ]

cool, i live in canada. do you know of any online places to print off my own designs? 

[Bingo]

I know this topic is a couple months old but thought I'd add - you can definitely find some people on Etsy that offer listings of custom buttons, just send them the art and they'll make however many for you. As everyone has said, button machines (good ones) are on the pricey side and I searched for a machine daily for several months before biting the bullet and buying a new one from ButtonBoyInc for about $217 USD. They're just really hard to find at a good price. If you just want to start out though with buttons but not paying $200+ for a machine just yet, check out Etsy for those listings! 

[LIZ]

thank you i will