paper cutter

"Steve Wolfe" wrote in message
. ..
Blade type cutters will never cut square regardless of what you pay for
them. The only way is to use one with a circular blade like a pizza
cutter on a rail.

That is how you are using it. The guillotine cutters do cut square, they
just have to be used properly.

Fifteen years ago I used a guillotine-type cutter that would, indeed,
cut square - you just turned a 16" wheel to press down the clamp with
anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand pounds of force to hold your
stock still. :-)

steve



On those types of cutters the paper has a side stop and a back fence. The
blade makes contact against the whole surface, not just the corner first. My
2 cents....

On 20 Dec 2006 07:16:35 -0800, "gp photo"
wrote:

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good paper cutter for cutting
photos. I only cut one at a time and the paper is no larger than 8-1/2
X 11. I have one that cost about $35 but it sometimes doesn't cut
exactly square. Thanks in advance.

I've had good results with the Dahle rotary trimmers. Look at B&H.

Paul Heslop wrote:
Steve Wolfe wrote:

Blade type cutters will never cut square regardless of what you pay for
them. The only way is to use one with a circular blade like a pizza
cutter on a rail.

That is how you are using it. The guillotine cutters do cut square, they
just have to be used properly.

Fifteen years ago I used a guillotine-type cutter that would, indeed, cut
square - you just turned a 16" wheel to press down the clamp with anywhere
from a few hundred to a thousand pounds of force to hold your stock still.
:-)

steve

:O) Now that's what i call a cutter! I blame most of my cutting
problems on my crap eyesight, crap hand stability and crap equipment.

That's a lot of crap! ;-)

Seriously, I've used a guillotine-type cutter and held the paper
in place with ordinary finger pressure.

--
--- Paul J. Gans

Paul J Gans wrote:

Paul Heslop wrote:
Steve Wolfe wrote:

Blade type cutters will never cut square regardless of what you pay for
them. The only way is to use one with a circular blade like a pizza
cutter on a rail.

That is how you are using it. The guillotine cutters do cut square, they
just have to be used properly.

Fifteen years ago I used a guillotine-type cutter that would, indeed, cut
square - you just turned a 16" wheel to press down the clamp with anywhere
from a few hundred to a thousand pounds of force to hold your stock still.
:-)

steve

:O) Now that's what i call a cutter! I blame most of my cutting
problems on my crap eyesight, crap hand stability and crap equipment.

That's a lot of crap! ;-)

Seriously, I've used a guillotine-type cutter and held the paper
in place with ordinary finger pressure.

--
--- Paul J. Gans

:O) I haven't used one of those since I worked in a kid's nursery
many moons ago. One of my main quibbles against these little trimmer
things is their awkwardness. I don't like putting my fingers on stuff
which is printed and may mark so I tend to use the ruler thing, only
then you're left with about half an inch or so when the blade housing
passes your fingers. Bad design!

--
Paul (Need a lift she said much obliged)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

"Paul Heslop" wrote in message
...
Paul J Gans wrote:
:O) I haven't used one of those since I worked in a kid's nursery
many moons ago. One of my main quibbles against these little trimmer
things is their awkwardness. I don't like putting my fingers on stuff
which is printed and may mark so I tend to use the ruler thing, only
then you're left with about half an inch or so when the blade housing
passes your fingers. Bad design!

--
Paul (Need a lift she said much obliged)

I use a clean sheet of paper on top of the print I'm trimming. I quickly
trim off the margin corners at a 45 degree angle so the beginning and end of
the print can easily be lined up for the cutter. Two problems though.
Sometimes there isn't enough contrast to find the corner of the image
accurately. And the other problem is trying to trim a very small amount
without the blade walking away or the print backing away from the blade. My
blade could be dull from cutting cardboard

"mark_digital©" wrote:

"Paul Heslop" wrote in message
...
Paul J Gans wrote:
:O) I haven't used one of those since I worked in a kid's nursery
many moons ago. One of my main quibbles against these little trimmer
things is their awkwardness. I don't like putting my fingers on stuff
which is printed and may mark so I tend to use the ruler thing, only
then you're left with about half an inch or so when the blade housing
passes your fingers. Bad design!

--
Paul (Need a lift she said much obliged)

I use a clean sheet of paper on top of the print I'm trimming. I quickly
trim off the margin corners at a 45 degree angle so the beginning and end of
the print can easily be lined up for the cutter. Two problems though.
Sometimes there isn't enough contrast to find the corner of the image
accurately. And the other problem is trying to trim a very small amount
without the blade walking away or the print backing away from the blade. My
blade could be dull from cutting cardboard

:O) Good advice about the spare paper thing. My eyes are not good,
though, so I agree about the vagueness of edges. Even when I print dvd
covers and have a nice black edge on them I make mistakes :O)
--
Paul (Need a lift she said much obliged)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

"Paul Heslop" wrote in message
...
[re using paper cutter]
I use a clean sheet of paper on top of the print I'm trimming. I quickly
trim off the margin corners at a 45 degree angle so the beginning and end
of
the print can easily be lined up for the cutter. Two problems though.
Sometimes there isn't enough contrast to find the corner of the image
accurately. And the other problem is trying to trim a very small amount
without the blade walking away or the print backing away from the blade.
My
blade could be dull from cutting cardboard

:O) Good advice about the spare paper thing. My eyes are not good,
though, so I agree about the vagueness of edges. Even when I print dvd
covers and have a nice black edge on them I make mistakes :O)

One trick I use is to put a light under the edge of the cutter, so that the
shadow shines through the paper. This lets me line up the edge more
accurately. When I'm doing a large number of prints, taping a couple of
cardboard guides onto the flat surface of the cutter. That way I don't need
to rely on a visual cue at all. Each cut is the same distance, and all the
prints stack up accurately.

Disc cutters are for wimps. Real men use guillotines.

Paul Heslop wrote:
Paul J Gans wrote:

Paul Heslop wrote:
Steve Wolfe wrote:

Blade type cutters will never cut square regardless of what you pay for
them. The only way is to use one with a circular blade like a pizza
cutter on a rail.

That is how you are using it. The guillotine cutters do cut square, they
just have to be used properly.

Fifteen years ago I used a guillotine-type cutter that would, indeed, cut
square - you just turned a 16" wheel to press down the clamp with anywhere
from a few hundred to a thousand pounds of force to hold your stock still.
:-)

steve

:O) Now that's what i call a cutter! I blame most of my cutting
problems on my crap eyesight, crap hand stability and crap equipment.

That's a lot of crap! ;-)

Seriously, I've used a guillotine-type cutter and held the paper
in place with ordinary finger pressure.

--
--- Paul J. Gans

:O) I haven't used one of those since I worked in a kid's nursery
many moons ago. One of my main quibbles against these little trimmer
things is their awkwardness. I don't like putting my fingers on stuff
which is printed and may mark so I tend to use the ruler thing, only
then you're left with about half an inch or so when the blade housing
passes your fingers. Bad design!

Mine was a large board capable of holding a larger sheet than
8 1/2 by 11. And what I usually trimmed were prints. If I
worried about marking the surface I used a piece of paper
to protect it. My hand was a couple of inches away from the
cutter blade so there was no problem there.

--
--- Paul J. Gans

Mike Russell wrote:

"Paul Heslop" wrote in message
...
[re using paper cutter]
I use a clean sheet of paper on top of the print I'm trimming. I quickly
trim off the margin corners at a 45 degree angle so the beginning and end
of
the print can easily be lined up for the cutter. Two problems though.
Sometimes there isn't enough contrast to find the corner of the image
accurately. And the other problem is trying to trim a very small amount
without the blade walking away or the print backing away from the blade.
My
blade could be dull from cutting cardboard

:O) Good advice about the spare paper thing. My eyes are not good,
though, so I agree about the vagueness of edges. Even when I print dvd
covers and have a nice black edge on them I make mistakes :O)

One trick I use is to put a light under the edge of the cutter, so that the
shadow shines through the paper. This lets me line up the edge more
accurately. When I'm doing a large number of prints, taping a couple of
cardboard guides onto the flat surface of the cutter. That way I don't need
to rely on a visual cue at all. Each cut is the same distance, and all the
prints stack up accurately.

Disc cutters are for wimps. Real men use guillotines.

with this one you're working with a blade which cuts close to the
ruler, at least half an inch or so in from the edge. My joy with
guillotines goes right back to school and those huge ones with the
blades like curved machetes... like this but a bit older :O)

http://tinyurl.com/w26l7

--
Paul (Need a lift she said much obliged)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

Paul J Gans wrote:

Paul Heslop wrote:
Paul J Gans wrote:

Paul Heslop wrote:
Steve Wolfe wrote:

Blade type cutters will never cut square regardless of what you pay for
them. The only way is to use one with a circular blade like a pizza
cutter on a rail.

That is how you are using it. The guillotine cutters do cut square, they
just have to be used properly.

Fifteen years ago I used a guillotine-type cutter that would, indeed, cut
square - you just turned a 16" wheel to press down the clamp with anywhere
from a few hundred to a thousand pounds of force to hold your stock still.
:-)

steve

:O) Now that's what i call a cutter! I blame most of my cutting
problems on my crap eyesight, crap hand stability and crap equipment.

That's a lot of crap! ;-)

Seriously, I've used a guillotine-type cutter and held the paper
in place with ordinary finger pressure.

--
--- Paul J. Gans

:O) I haven't used one of those since I worked in a kid's nursery
many moons ago. One of my main quibbles against these little trimmer
things is their awkwardness. I don't like putting my fingers on stuff
which is printed and may mark so I tend to use the ruler thing, only
then you're left with about half an inch or so when the blade housing
passes your fingers. Bad design!

Mine was a large board capable of holding a larger sheet than
8 1/2 by 11. And what I usually trimmed were prints. If I
worried about marking the surface I used a piece of paper
to protect it. My hand was a couple of inches away from the
cutter blade so there was no problem there.

--
--- Paul J. Gans

This cutter seems very small. I think I just went for something which
was in stock on the day instead of thinking carefully. A large area
would probably help a lot.
--
Paul (Need a lift she said much obliged)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/