Rotary Trimmer - advice and insights

[NeilPrintArt]

We are a small but busy service studio. Printing for artists and photographers on 2x 44" Epson's. One of the most time consuming and labour intensive parts of our operation is the trimming of prints. Takes hours. Originally we had an old rotary trimmer, but it didn't cut true. So we reverted to hand trimming with rulers and craft knives. But it is slow. And sometimes hard to get a truly clean edge.

I am going to demo a brand new Ideal rotary trimmer at the local distributor. Ideal are made in Germany I believe and have a decent reputation. And that is the only option in this part of the world (South Africa) I have been unable to find any other brands locally. Anyone have experience of the Ideal rotary trimmers?

There are 2x models , one with a cutting length of 100cm (39") and one with a cutting length up to 155cm (61"). We certainly often need to trim up to 155cm, but will a rotary trimmer hold true at that size? Is it worth getting the considerably more expensive bigger model?

And how to trim precisely on a crop mark with a rotary trimer? I have struggled in the past, any tips or techniques?

Thanks!
Neil

[Richard.Wills]

That looks rather light weight in comparison to the RotaTrim Technical series. These have a clamping bar that descends whenever the cutting head is moved from home (left or right hand side).

RotaTrim are expensive, but also almost bullet proof in construction.

[kers]

I have 2 from Dahle ; another brand and also German- they serve me well -
They are light weight for they use alluminium instead of steal for the alignment tube.
The allignment tube is double but one piece of alluminium; smarter ( more rigid than the double steel Rotatrim
You can buy extra cutters.
Also have a Rotatrim, but I personally cannot see the greatness of it;

[Richard.Wills]

I have 2 from Dahle ; another brand and also German- they serve me well -
They are light weight for they use alluminium instead of steal for the alignment tube.
The allignment tube is double but one piece of alluminium; smarter ( more rigid than the double steel Rotatrim
You can buy extra cutters.
Also have a Rotatrim, but I personally cannot see the greatness of it;

The Technical range has a Large single square stainless steel guide rail completely eliminates head swivel. The clamping mechanism moves up a few millimetres to allow you to slide the more delicate papers into place, without dragging under the clamping strip of other cutters, and lowers across the width of the cutter in one move.

[NeilPrintArt]

thanks for the helpful feedback

I went to demo the Ideal machine and its useless. Rickety and lightweight. And crucially it doesn't have a visual alignment edge on top of the paper, so impossible to to see if one is cutting along trim mark.

Dahle and RotaTrim have solid reputations, but both are import only options which becomes crazy expensive   

Might have to persevere with ruler and craft knife, grrr

[dgberg]

We have a beautiful new 84" Keencut Evolution 3 but do not use it for any print trimming that has white borders.
If you put a print under the 4" holdout it covers everything that you have to see to trim. If you have a printed trim line then you can line it up to the line and trim.
We use our 36" Rotatrim for most print trimming. We have 1" marks on top of the plastic shield. Slide the print in to those marks and cut. Perfect 1" border all the time.
Also why we have the cutter turned this direction to cut.

[Mark D Segal]

thanks for the helpful feedback

.........

Dahle and RotaTrim have solid reputations, but both are import only options which becomes crazy expensive   

Might have to persevere with ruler and craft knife, grrr

Neil - I don't know the cost of importing a Rotatrim to your location relative to what your business can manage, but just from a technical and time-saving perspective, I've been using a Rotarim professional model for quite a while. Yes, here in Canada ii also cost a bundle, but over the years it has saved me tremendously in efficiency and avoidance of spoilage. It's robust, accurate and easy to manage lining up the paper exactly as you want it. Sometimes one learns over time it just pays to make the plunge and get the money back over years of reliable and user-friendly service.

[sharadn]

I bought one of these because I print panoramas which are quite long: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265235509318." USA 71" Sliding KT Board Trimmer Cutting Ruler PVC Board Protective Ruler Cutter" It is inexpensive and works quite well if you are careful. I cut on top of a piece of 1/4" foam core. It is not as fast to use as a rotary cutter but I am very happy with mine but I don't do a large volume.