Rotary cutter for trimming canvas

[chez]

I picked up a 48" Hansa rotary trimmer and it does a good job on regular photo paper, but does not work on canvas. I tried to trim off 1" of canvas and the canvas just bends down as the rotary cutter passes over it. Do other trimmers handle canvas, doing fine trimmings, or should I stick to a manual stiletto blade and a guide.

[bill t.]

Xacto knife and a stainless steel Alvin straight edge.  Scissors work too!  If I only need to trim off a few inches, I just hang the canvas over the edge of my cheap tables and use the sides of the tables as Xacto knife guides, good idea to put a swipe of tape to connect a few inches of the print edges on the table to the table.

[namartinnz]

I use a Rotatrim - works really well. Otherwise I use scissors - this is for gallery wraps. As I edge glue the sides and rear to the frame I trim with a stanley blade, leaving a nice finish.

[chez]

I use a Rotatrim - works really well. Otherwise I use scissors - this is for gallery wraps. As I edge glue the sides and rear to the frame I trim with a stanley blade, leaving a nice finish.

Are you saying a Rotatrim can cleanly take 1/4" off the edge of canvas without any problems? If that is the case, I might have to look into 1. I picked up the 48" Hansa for $100 and was hoping it would do the job for all my trimming. Works great on normal paper, but when it comes to do fine trimming ( 1/4" or so ) on canvas, it just does not work.

[ssgphoto]

No not even a rotatrim cannot consistently cut 1/4" off canvas. I have 54" rotatrim which is a fantastic cutter, but unless there is more than a couple of inches being trimmed off giving the canvas some tension and mass, it can fold down and scrape under the cutting wheel. It is possible cut shorter slices off, but its not reliable to do it consistently even if you are very careful. if its only for edges to be hidden behind gallery wraps it will do the job but for a clean cut its very challenging.