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Does anyone remember this product? (Han-D-Cut Linear slicer / paper cutter)

Jumpshoutmedia

New Member
Note: Sorry for the bad quality photo, it's the only one I could find of the cutter and it was sitting in the background, so I had to crop everything else out and zoom in on the cutter.

Does anyone remember this cutter?

I believe it was called a "linear cutter" or "linear slicer"

The first and only one that I ever saw like it, was the one shown in my photo, and it was made by a small company called Han-D-Cut, and I believe the company was just an older gentleman who owned and operated the company, and if I remember correctly.. this product was his own invention/design, he manufactured the cutters himself and primarily sold to the sign industry (I think I remember seeing him at sign conventions).

But anyway, the reason I'm asking is because this cutter has been an indispensable tool around my shop, I've been using it for 15+ years.

Recently, I was cleaning it up and making some adjustments to it, and I took a good look it and the home-made aspect of how it was manufactured, and I started to wondered if that type of cutter was even still available for purchase.

Then I vaguely remembered that at one point I think the old man sold the company or the design itself to another sign supply type company, who (may or may not) have re-branded it, and was selling an updated version of it under a different name, but I can no longer find ANYTHING like it online anywhere! (not even a mention of the product name on an old website)

Perhaps I'm just searching the wrong thing, but I tried "linear slicer, linear cutter, linear paper cutter, etc" as well as the product/company name "han-d-cut" <--do NOT google that phrase btw. and I even tried going to the website printed on the platen and an old box of replacement blades that I had, to see if it would forward to whichever company took over the product. The url was han-d-cut.com and the domain is no longer active.

I'm just wondering if anyone had or has one of these cutters, and if they know what happened to the company and/or the product?

Did it evolved into something else.. OR did it just disappeared all together, as I fear it might have!?

I seem to remember looking at the time that I originally bought mine, and being able to find several other products that were similar to the Han-D-Cut, in that, they had a fixed (NOT rotary) blade mounted to a track/rail of some sort, and you would drag the blade across the material to slice it, but all of the alternative versions were MUCH more expensive, and they didn't seem as skookum as the Han-D-Cut, which was made of aluminum, steel, melamine, and the only "plastic" on the entire thing was the blade carrier, which was machined out of a solid block of super-durable and very slick/slippery UHMW or Delrin.

If it did disappear, then that would be a damn SHAME, because it was a really handy, inexpensive way to cleanly cut/slice a fairly-thick stack of decals (10-20 layers thick), as well as prints, banner etc.

As I've already mentioned, I used the HELL out of mine, and as a matter of fact.. I feels like I've slid that delrin blade carrier across that guide rail at least a MILLION times over the past 15 years, and it has a shiny path/groove worn into the aluminum extrusion to prove it!

If anyone has any info as to the history of this product, and it's fate, I'd love to know!

Thanks
 

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Jumpshoutmedia

New Member
Gotta love this place! I'm confused though, do you still have yours, is it still working?
Looks like the Daka Company may still be in business. The phone number is still listed on some other websites as the same from han-d-cut.com. Might as well give them a shout and see if anyone picks up?
While we are on old inventions for the industry, anybody have any info on the anvil shape for a "Red Stapler Machine"?

To clarify, yes, I still have mine. It's the small model that doesn't use olfa / snap-off blades, it just has a delrin fixed razor blade holder that accepts the flat rectangular blades that have a square hole in them.

The reason I was asking what happened to the company is because I'd like to get a bigger, more heavy-duty model and I'd hoped by now (15 years later) that they'd have some fancy, new model that had ball bearings and stepper motors in it (joke).

I was kinda hoping the product would have evolved a bit into something cooler and more versetal, or perhaps they sold out to a bigger company that has their own line of cutters like this one, but I can't seem to find anything like it!

I wonder why it didn't live on!? I would imagine that every sign shop would be able to get a LOT of use out of one (like I have!)
 

jfiscus

Rap Master
We have the Keencut Evolution E2 in slightly over 8' long. It is awesome and holds up to heavy use, we've had ours around 4 years now.
 

Jumpshoutmedia

New Member
You can do like I did, and buy some linear rail off of flea bay for around $75, a couple of 1x4's, a hand full of screws.
I cut 2 lengths of 3/16th X 2" flat steel, one to span the two linear bearings to keep them from rotating on the rail, the other to weld 90 degrees to mount the
blade holder, and to use as a handle. The blade holder was around $150 with the blades.

It works great, i built it mainly because i cut lots of Coro.
I haven't cut paper with it because its mounted vertically on my wall, but you could build it flat to cut paper if you wanted to.
Would you mind sharing more detailed/hi-res photos? I've been kicking around the idea of scaling up and building off the design of the cutter I've already got, and I'd love to see how you tackled it up close. Thanks!
 
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