OT but there is always someone

[Charlie Bress]

I have an old paper trimmer. The style that they call guillotine with the big knife not the rotary blade kind.

I bought it cheap at a yard sale. It never cut truly square. The scale at one end that you hold the paper against is set in a slot in the deck so that cannot be moved. The steel bar that the blade cuts along to provide a scissor action is held down with wood screws. It seems that this bar was set off square when this thing was made. You couldn't easily reposition this bar because the existing hole always guided the screws into the same position.

So I took the bar off and using my trusty framing square and some good old JB weld moved that bar so that it was square to the back stop.

The blade sounds as if it is cutting, that is the blade rubs against the bar, but the paper doesn't get cut. It mostly just bends down. It seems as if there is a gap that is too big.

Anybody got a link that describes any adjusting that can be done? I could just toss the thing, but I hate to give up on this piece of junk and want to fix it for the satisfaction.

Don't tell me to buy a new one. I can figure that out myself.

Charlie

[Bob]

guillotine with the

The scale at

deck so that

provide a

this bar was set

reposition this bar

same position.

some good old

against the

It seems as

Did it cut right before you modified it? If not, sharpen it.

Is the bar you moved twisted so that the blade gets pushed away from the cutting edge as you push it down?

Bob

[jim]

the blade has to be close to the metal part that is to receive the blade so the paper will cut.. they should have a screw adjustment holding the blade tighter to this metal bar... and the blade has to be sharp.... think of it as a pair of scissors... and then handle it as such.. the part you moved should never have moved.. you should have moved the piece that lined up the paper....if thats what happened????\

[Charlie Bress]

It used to cut fairly well if the sheet was not to big, for instance trimming 4x6 pix. The piece that lined up the paper could not be moved. It's cross section is a T with the vertical set into a groove in the board. The nagging problem was that it did not cut square so that is what I was trying to fix. There is some sort of adjustment for the blade, I think. But it may be frozen. Or maybe it is not really an adjustment.

Charlie

[Doug Miller]

The only way to fix this is by moving the piece that aligns the paper. If you can't move that, you can't adjust the cut. The blade must slide down right next to the edge for the paper to be cut, just as if it were a scissors. As you have discovered, changing the angle between the two cutting edges causes it to not cut properly any longer.

[Tom Miller]

[snip]

I was in the graphic arts business for many years and I've tried several of these things, new and old, cheap and expensive, and have always found that they NEVER cut straight and often do not cut square. Some are better than others, but I'm wondering if you are simply trying to fix something that is basically unfixable.

The problem I have always had is that the blade cuts in a shallow arc instead of a straight line. Good enough for office work, but not good enough when you are trying to show a customer how a brochure will fold. Or when you are making fifty samples to give away to get business.

Another problem they have is keeping the paper from drifting into the radius of the arc as you cut. Even with your full upper body weight behind your hand, the blade friction will often pull the paper out of square.

Fortunately for me, my father-in-law's expensive hobby was offset printing, and I had available to me an old commercial paper cutter, vintage about 1920-30. It is now in my garage; still works -- way too cool to throw away.

The downside is that it weighs about 800 pounds; it's made mostly of cast iron. It has a 28" steel blade that slices down and across the paper when you pull down a 5 foot lever. On top, it has a cast iron screw-down press that holds the paper immobile while the blade slices the stack. Behind, there is a steel fence that moves with a screw along a four foot bed to square up the paper under the cutter.

It will slice through a whole ream of paper up to 28" wide in one cut. The cuts are absolutely straight, since the blade drops and slices from directly above, slitting the entire sheet of paper at once, not one end to the other.

[Anthony Diodati]