Cutting wide prints & foam board

[Varka]

Hey folks,

I'm looking for a better solution for cutting foam mounting board and long prints (17" wide by up to 24"-26" long) than using a knife and straight edge, and was wondering what people preferred.

Right now, I do a lot of foam board mounting of prints up to 17" wide on Elmer self-adhesive 30x20 black foam board, and it's proving to be an exercise in frustration to get clean, 90-degree cuts with no damage to the foam core or tearing of the print - even when using a brand-new blade.

The optimist in me is shouting 'There must be a better way!' and after extensive Googling, I've read a lot about people using rotary cutters and guillotines to trim prints and foam board. I also spotted pre-cut matted boards in common sizes (16x20, 8.5x11) and previously have mounted then cut, and wonder how effective these are to use in the real world.

So, how do YOU do it? 

[dgberg]

I cut all of my foam board on my Speedmat cutter but rarely do anything on the foam over 11x17.
When mounting to foam board or gatorboard I just print about a 1/4 extra bleed on all 4sides of the print.
Attach print to board and flip over and trim with razor.
The board is always cut to size first.
No straight edge or other utensils required.
It may not be a perfect edge all the time but they eventually all go into frames.

[framah]

An Exacto knife with new blades works fine for me for over 18 years.
A plain utility knife doesn't work near as well.

The idea is to not try to cut it all way thru at once. 2 or 3 times works better at not tearing the edge or the paper.
Change the blade often, they are cheap compared to damaged f/c and prints.

The straight edge needs to have the rubber/foam  insert on the bottom to keep  it from moving while cutting and heavy enough as well. A ruler won't work.

[Paul2660]

What are you cutting into below the print?  I use the large Alvin cutting mats whenever I am cutting a print, RC, fiber or Matte paper.  This material give the blade something to bite into and won't dull the blade.  You can get the mats in many different sizes.  The ruler I use has a small strip of foam that helps to hold the ruler on the print and won't damage the face of the print.  Any good hand held blade should work fine on the cuts.   

For cutting foam core before mounting a print I always use a  Fletcher wall mount, mine is the 48" inch version they also make a 60".  You can trim foam core down very easily this way.  I always cut my foam core before mounting the print.  So if I am working on a Print that is 23 x 33 which I will mount and mat to 30 x 40, I will cut the foam core to 30 x 40 first, place the print with the mat, then do the dry mount.  There are many ways to do this, this works best for me.

Paul