HELP! Advice needed re Disc Cutter

[Figgypud]

I bought << Deluxe Disc Cutting Set, For Cutting Flat And Shallow Coned Discs >> from Cooksons. It is a beautifully engineered piece of kit but comes without any instructions. The website description says -

<< This set not only cuts flat discs, but also forms and cuts cone shaped discs. It comes with a small disc cutter and 21 punches (7 flat, 7 concave, and 7 convex) all nicely packaged in a wooden storage box. Coned discs are formed by using the convex and concave punches with the disc cutter, which cuts seven sizes ....Please note: covex & concave punches produce a shallow cone. The disc will need to be domed on a doming block. >>

Does anyone out there have one of these? How do YOU produce the cone-shaped discs from it? The description above implies that a coned disc can be cut and formed in a single process, but the only way I can find to do it is to first cut a flat disc using the normal flat punches and then to put it between the convex and concave punches in the block and hammer it to produce a cone.

This is an expensive kit and it seems to me that if you have to cut a flat disc and then put it back in the cutter to start the doming process by producing a cone, then you might as well buy a normal (cheaper) disc cutter and just put the flat discs straight on the doming block!! (Although the cones themselves are very pretty).

Does anyone know the correct way to use this block??

[ps_bond]

Hmm. I'm pretty sure there are some fairly comprehensive instructions for that set - I shall ask where they got to.

Essentially - as you've already worked out - you've got a cutter (flat end), a female cone die and a male cone die for each size; if you punch the disc out, then drop the female cone die into the correct hole in the cutter, then the disc, then the male cone die it holds everything aligned & a solid whack will give you a neat shallow cone.

I can't make cones with a doming block, BTW

[Figgypud]

Thanks Peter. It does make nice cones of consistent size and shape - I have already soldered some together to make bicone beads. I just had the idea that I ought somehow to be able to cut and cone in one go. Including some instructions would be a good idea, I think - as a beginner in the silversmithing / jewellery-making world I don't always cotton on straight away to things which are obvious to the experts. Thanks for your help.