How do I punch out cards?

[Royalbleu]

In short, I have no idea what I'm doing. How do I punch strips using a printout as a guide? Do I tape/staple it? Does anyone know of a video tutorial? I know it might seem like a stupid question but I've just been writing in the circles which has been very tedious.

[AlexD]

If you have a lightbox (or can make one) then you can basically tape down and line up strips on top of the printouts so you can quick run through with a pencil/pen/marker and then proceed to cut them out. It's still not the fastest method, but certainly beats trying to manually draw them in (especially on the 30 note strips )

A picture is worth a thousand words:

[Royalbleu]

I never thought about doing that! Did you make your light box? Also, I'm having a lot of difficulty when it comes to lining up multiple sheets of paper with the long 30 note strip. What paper do you buy, could you include a link? Last question, how long does it usually take you to punch out a song?

[AlexD]

I had bought a lightbox originally since they aren't too expensive these days for good bright LED versions, though even a simple incandescent bulb in a box with a sheet of glass or clear plastic on top would work (assuming you can get said bulbs, here everything is "energy saver" now which take a good 3-6 minutes to warm up before they reach full intensity... ). In the picture there the strip was the same width as the PDF printout page strips so after taping down the printed page it was just a matter of lining up the bottom/top edges (didn't bother cutting anything out from the printed page, just put the strip over top).

The strip I had there was what came with the musical movement, you can also buy additional precut strips and even continual strip rolls in 15-50 meter lengths through Etsy, eBay, Amazon, and AliExpress (though the shipping can be slow and pricey coming from China).

Punching time is another matter entirely, if it's a simpler tune or a short tune then it may be fairly fast going. If it's a very complicated tune with lots of harmony chords accompanying the main melody then that can wind up taking a good bit longer. Usually just a matter of patience either way.