Cutting Lots Of Coreflute

[Posterboy]

Hey guys,

I have had an enquiry for 100 a4 corflute/corrugated plastic signs.

I've got a corflute cutting tool, which is good for down the flute, but I still need to go across the flute.

My bench time manually cutting this with a knife and straight edge is going to blow me out of the water.
Local suppliers only sell in packs of 10 sheets 1.2*1.8 metres or 1.2*2.4 metres.

Any tips for cutting lots of corflute/corrugated plastic at a time?

 

[GAC05]

A4 seems like it would be pretty quick work with a ruler and knife on the short cuts. How thick of a coro sheet?
Thinner stuff could be cut clean with a guillotine cutter (the type the teacher used to threaten us with in elementary school).
We just did a 110 single sided 18"x 24"s and 55 20"x 12" double sided coro signs in about 2 hours including mounting. 1 man and the new guy learning how to do it.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[oldgoatroper]

Keencut Javelin -- I've used one for 10 years and love it... You can place the thing on coro and it will not move -- easy cutting and the blades that come with the thing (made in UK) last forever -- I got a box of 20 blades with the cutter and still have 12 left. I've actually cut 6mm Sintra with it as well, but with several passes. Cuts 2mm sintra easily.. Doesnt' cut FomeCor well because of the angle of the blade, but the unit itself is a great cutting tool for drawing a hand-held knife, as well, as it simply will not move once placed on the substrate.

Unit can be mounted permanently, too, but I just use it loose. It does need a cutting matt underneath... and I think probably most shops have one. We had a 5'x10' mat which made it very easy to cut down the length of full sheets and with straight cuts, even if the flutes don't quite match your cut .

I highly recommend them. Pricey, but worth it, for sure.

<edit> I was just on the website and it looks like the newest model has a fancier cutter head, so, looks even more capable than our 10-year-old... Javelin Series 2 » Precision Cutters

 

[Posterboy]

Your guy hand trimmed 165 pieces and mounted 220 prints in 120 minutes? That's about 44 seconds per unit. I think you've hired the Flash.

 

[GAC05]

Your guy hand trimmed 165 pieces and mounted 220 prints in 120 minutes? That's about 44 seconds per unit. I think you've hired the Flash.

We have to do this every month or so.
The larger ones are ganged 10 to a sheet - 11 sheets ran through the laminator.
Prints are mounted using our hand cranked laminator
All of prints are ganged with zero gap all around so a single cut is needed in each direction
18 of the smaller prints are ganged as a single print - run through the laminator - second set of 18 (without trim marks) are laid down on the back.
(We print an extra 6 prints to cover the odd one out and any non recoverable goofs.)
Single cuts again separate them from each other.
All of these are inserted into frames that cover about 1/2" all around so a small misalignment between the 2 sided prints does not matter.
When you think of it as only 14 full sheets of coro 8 to 15 minutes per sheet is not unreasonable.
If we had to mount each copy - one by one on pre-cut coro we would be there all day.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[ikarasu]

Do you have a table saw? Or access to one? We use it in a pinch to cut down to size when we need a lot cut. You could probably rent one from a home hardware store for a few hours... That's only thing I can think of that won't cost you an arm and a leg in machine costs.

 

[Bly]

Unless you've got a flatbed cutter it's ruler & knife time.

 

[Gino]

If cutting 100 pcs of Cor-X is gonna break the bank on this deal, then you are working entirely, too cbeap.

With our equipment, you might be looking at 20 minutes worth of cutting time, if that. With a straight edge and knife, maybe an hour at most. You're doing something wrong, if cutting 100 pieces is gonna bottleneck your project.

C'mon, tell us the real problem.​

 

[Johnny Best]

ruler and knife gets my vote

 

[FireSprint.com]

You could use a foot shear. That'd what we used to use before we got our guillotine cutters and later our Zund.

If you want to sub this out, we can do it.

 

[Tom Dalton]

We recently starting importing a new substrate trimmer that is made in Italy. We think it is pretty slick and priced pretty competitive to the Keencut Javelin. Check it out here... Cuttari

 

[ikarasu]

We recently starting importing a new substrate trimmer that is made in Italy. We think it is pretty slick and priced pretty competitive to the Keencut Javelin. Check it out here... Cuttari

How is the cuttari any different than Mondo Trimmer ? I'm presuming its better quality, but generally the thing that breaks on these is the rolling part... which with the mondo you can buy replacements for, for $10. I've never used either, and plan on getting a mondo... Unless you can convince me the cuttari is worth 4x as much!

 

[ikarasu]

Thanks for this - I never realized these things were available with adjustable blade depth.

Has anyone used these things for backslitting?

I havent even though of it for backslitting, but I imagine you'd need a very, very flat table. All our matts are kind of like cushions... with how thin vinyl is, I'd think you'd cut through in some parts. I think the adjustable part is mainly so you can cut coro / etc, and then shrink it down for vinyl. Of course it could work... I'll test it once I buy it (Probably in a week or two, still putting together a must have list)

I figure for $100, a straight edge is almost that price. If I end up not liking the cutter part, I Can tear it off and use it as a straight edge anyways!


[Edit] I just noticed the sizes... I wonder why they're all so akward. 47"/70/102". I'd like a 54", or close to one... guess I'll be getting the 70, which seems like it'll be a bit big for me... 47 seems too small, couldn't even cut the 48" rolls... maybe I'll get a 47 for all the small decal cuts, and just use a big blue when I need bigger :\ shame, wish they had 54"!

 

[dale911]

Mondo Trimmer is where it's at for something like this. I originally bought the largest one to do 8' cuts when making banners. It was such a great price that I bought the 70" as well because I seldom use a straight edge and ruler anymore and an 8' cutter is a little unwieldy when you are cutting apart 18" pieces. It has rubber grippers on the bottom and a decent amount of weight so you don't have to worry much about it moving while cutting. It also uses everyday utility blade razors that you can buy at any hardware store at $15 for a 100 pack. I don't know how the other companies sell their units for 4x the price for the same thing. You will not regret a Mondp Cutter. Also, if you don't have a big squeegee for mounting stuff, especially yard signs, GET ONE NOW! Those two tools are the backbones in the shop.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

I'll second the Javelin recommendation. Used one for years, most recently used the Keencut Evolution E2 (which is like a Javelin on steroids and is amazing). The majority of our cutting gets done by the Zund now though.

 

[jsonpaul]

Once you cut on the flute, if you have access to a guillotine/stack paper cutter it works very well. I use this when ever i have to do yard signs etc.

 

[Bly]

We have a Javelin but find it a bit cumbersome for small pieces like A4s.

 

[myront]

We use a wall mounted 63" ProCut Elite and the Keencut Javelin

 

[hcardwell93]

I bought a Mondo cutter and thought it was the biggest ripoff of chinese junk I've ever bought. I received it damaged in 2 spots, the companies customer support was appalling. The cutting head was so flimsy and wobbly the blade could wobble up to 1/8" while cutting, and that was after tightening everything up.

I sent it back and bought some of the "Big Foot" rulers from US Cutter and am much more satisfied.

If I ever spend money on anything like that again it will say Keencut on it.

 

[Tom Dalton]

How is the cuttari any different than Mondo Trimmer ? I'm presuming its better quality, but generally the thing that breaks on these is the rolling part... which with the mondo you can buy replacements for, for $10. I've never used either, and plan on getting a mondo... Unless you can convince me the cuttari is worth 4x as much!

Well, I have no experience with the Mondo Trimmer. So, I can't say anything bad about it. We haven't had any issues with the "rolling part" on the Cuttari.

-Tom