The buttons are inexpensive but do the trick. Most of the time when it doesn't work, it is my fault (I didn't read the instructions, or I forgot a piece, or flipped the parts the wrong way.) I've made 300 buttons successfully, and its worked out well. The circle cutter took some getting used to, but it works, and if you snap off a small piece of one of those snap off razor blades, you can replace the blade! Next challenge is finding more parts!