Rotatrim

[PRJ]

The type of cutter that I linked to clamps the paper/film before you make the cut, and the blade is an actual blade that slices right through the stack. Sounds almost like a zipper. Zzzzzzt. I think they might be called stack cutters too. I use to have one and it weighed a ton so I gave it to someone when I moved years ago. Wish I still had it. By far the best way to cut a stack of paper. Once you clamp the material down it doesn't move. Perfect super clean cuts every time. Rototrims and the other type of guillotine cutters do a metal-to-metal pinching edge so the cut can be sloppy especially when cutting multiple sheets of paper. Rototrims cut straighter than the guillotine cutters that most people are familiar with. Those tend to pull the cut material offline I've found.

Hope that helps you.

[Bob Salomon]

The type of cutter that I linked to clamps the paper/film before you make the cut, and the blade is an actual blade that slices right through the stack. Sounds almost like a zipper. Zzzzzzt. I think they might be called stack cutters too. I use to have one and it weighed a ton so I gave it to someone when I moved years ago. Wish I still had it. By far the best way to cut a stack of paper. Once you clamp the material down it doesn't move. Perfect super clean cuts every time. Rototrims and the other type of guillotine cutters do a metal-to-metal pinching edge so the cut can be sloppy especially when cutting multiple sheets of paper. Rototrims cut straighter than the guillotine cutters that most people are familiar with. Those tend to pull the cut material offline I've found.

Hope that helps you.

Rototrim is a rotary, not a guilitine cutter.

[John Layton]

I've never cut sheet film except for clip testing...but it is likely that I will at some point - so I have a question : for us tray shufflers...wouldn't the bottom of a raw, cut film edge tend to scratch films underneath during the shuffling process? (you know, that sharp film edge which gets pushed down a bit by a guillotine cutter, at least as I've noticed with aforementioned clip tests). My clips are done on a Dahle cutter - pretty good quality I think...but maybe I'd need something "better?"

Further thinking...would using a rotary trimmer tend to minimize this scratching? Just wondering!

[PRJ]

Rototrim is a rotary, not a guilitine cutter.

Duh!

I'll just leave it at that. Lol.

[invisibleflash]

I have a number of Rotatrims, mostly in smaller sizes. They all cut differently. Some are more square than others. I cut tons of 4 x 6 for RPPC's. The stop works OK, but as I said, some are more square than others. You can see how square your cutter is by cutting a small paper then reversing it to see how it lays up. Does it fit the cutter as the original cut? If not, it is out of square.

[Jim Galli]

Here's what I've been using for years. Cheap and works like a charm.

[Drew Wiley]

I have even a 48 inch dual-rail Rotatrim with an equally long precision squaring bar firmly attached to any even bigger fully laminated surface. I use this not only for prints, but for sizing sheets of paper off big rolls of color paper in the dark. Keeping things square is a bit tricky even with the lights on, and requires a firm pressure platen, not just a bar. The process of cutting can tug a bit. Cheap guillotine stack cutters are far worse. Get the best Dahle you can afford and keep it tightly adjusted and sharp. I like to have versatile equipment, so described the squaring feature of my own device in relation to usage in full darkness. If you're working with X-Ray or Ortho film you can obviously make life easier with a red safelight.

[Drew Wiley]

Jim ... do yer trim yer whiskers with thet thar Fiskars ?

[interneg]

I have even a 48 inch dual-rail Rotatrim with an equally long precision squaring bar firmly attached to any even bigger fully laminated surface. I use this not only for prints, but for sizing sheets of paper off big rolls of color paper in the dark. Keeping things square is a bit tricky even with the lights on, and requires a firm pressure platen, not just a bar. The process of cutting can tug a bit. Cheap guillotine stack cutters are far worse. Get the best Dahle you can afford and keep it tightly adjusted and sharp. I like to have versatile equipment, so described the squaring feature of my own device in relation to usage in full darkness. If you're working with X-Ray or Ortho film you can obviously make life easier with a red safelight.

Can't speak to the quality of the bigger Dahle guillotines, but their rotary cutters are far inferior to the dual rail Rotatrims.

[Bob Salomon]

Can't speak to the quality of the bigger Dahle guillotines, but their rotary cutters are far inferior to the dual rail Rotatrims.

Nonsense! High end Dahle rotary cutters are every bit as good! The budget ones obviously aren’t!