Cutting long strips. Any tips?

[fine point]

Hello there.

I want to pick your brain for something seemingly easy but hard (for us).

We often cut long strips of SAV prints, like 20' long. We used to use just straight up safety ruler and a knife, but we made mistakes more often than we should, and started looking for an alternative.

We have used Sooper Edge with cutting head (Sooper Edge The Ultimate Safety Ruler | Image1Impact). and YelloTool Cut Coaster (CutCoaster).

The first one works surprisingly well but it's not as precise as we want.

The latter is a complete garbage. Chinese made cheepo crap and Yellotool doesn't even accept return.

Do any of you all have any tools you can recommend? Or trick of the trade??

I understand it just might be a skill you need to master but I was wondering if there are any alternatives.

Thanks!

 

[rjssigns]

Invest in a Summa or a slitter.

 

[fine point]

Invest in a Summa or a slitter.

I am not too familiar with slitters.
I have only seen one at our supplier. Are they good for trimming the long prints?

 

[rjssigns]

I am not too familiar with slitters.
I have only seen one at our supplier. Are they good for trimming the long prints?

I assumed too much. When you said you were cutting 20' strips I figured you were printing a specific color then cutting to a dimension, not trimming the waste from prints.
My method is to use a super sharp set of scissors set at a narrow opening and glide it along the edge. Been doing it so long I'm quite accurate.

I've heard the KeenCut Javelins are good, but have no experience.

A slitter could work too, as long as your prints are wound evenly on the core. But unless you're doing a ton of that type of work it would be hard to justify the cost.

 

[fine point]

Thanks for the reply!
My original post was misleading. My apology.

We do have the javelin and is a good equipment but we can't quite master cutting long prints with with.

The sales person told me that it can cut a long banner well by cutting it little by little. We tried it but it's too cumbersome and time consuming. Maybe we are doing it wrong :/

 

[ikarasu]

You could get a vinyl cutter... if you don't have one, it'd also open your business up to other ventures. Throw some cropmarks on it, and it'll cut it pretty straight.

We use something like this - 6061 Aluminum Flat - MetalsDepot&reg 15 FT.

Crop marks not just at the ends, but midway in the print - Align the bar for one end, and midway... Make sure you're cutting on the OUTSIDE of the image, then if your hand drifts you can just recut it and it'll be straight still. Rinse and repeat for the other side. It should be straight enough that no one will be able to tell without a level. \

Also... I believe yellotools is made in germany. As for the quality of it, I can't comment on that.

 

[bigben]

If you cut alot, invest in a XY cutter like fotoba

 

[fine point]

Thanks guys!
I would love us some of the metal bars! that's a pretty awesome site. I am sure we will buy a few of them. We can use it as a paper weight too.

Fotoba machine looks pretty sweet. I wish we can justify the purchase but not for now...

 

[ikarasu]

Thanks guys!
I would love us some of the metal bars! that's a pretty awesome site. I am sure we will buy a few of them. We can use it as a paper weight too.

Fotoba machine looks pretty sweet. I wish we can justify the purchase but not for now...

You should be able to find it locally from any metal shop. I just googled "Flat metal bar" and thats the first site that came up. I'd go with something harder than aluminum, as it knicks easy.

We have a steel one I believe... We do a lot of welding / etc, so we get them in 30 ft length, our sign maker had a genius idea of cutting one in half and using it for long straight cuts... The steel ones have a bit of weight, makes it perfect since it holds the material down and doesn't move. You could also get some grip pads and put it on the bottom also.

We paid $100 for a sooper edge... And while it works good, the little steel bar makes it less accurate than when we use a flat bar. our flat bars been kicking around for a few years, and no nicks or nothing in it. I think I might have to cut a couple 54" ones and use them instead of the sooper!

 

[studio 440]

go to a paint and decorator store and buy a straight edge for cutting wallpaper when you get the hang of it its the best for hand cutting

 

[jawdavis]

Invest in a Keencut Sabre. Hard to find them used but occasionally you'll get lucky. We have 3 printers running nothing but wall murals 8 hours a day and one person can trim and ship every panel that comes out and not get behind. We have the 100" cutter mounted flush to the edge of a 5x10 table and it works for everything we do and we print alot of 12'-20' one-piece prints. Cut 100", scoot it down, cut again, your line stays perfectly straight. I can trim an entire 54"x150' roll into 18-20 wall mural panels in 30 minutes. 120" cutter can be found under $1500 and if you do alot of cutting, you'll quickly forget how in the world you got by without one. The idea of using a handheld straight edge, sooper edge, scissors, etc. is just insane to me nowadays after using this.