Electric paper cutters (guillotines)

[soggywinter]

Challenge is the go to brand in the cut sheet side of things. Make sure to look up the model before you buy it though. They had a series or two that the hydraulics were bad and it costs more to replace than what the cutter is worth. I do not remember the exact series.

I have had two nasty failures with Titan 200- one failure was the clamp spring failing spontaneously and the clamp falling and almost crushing an employee's hand. The other issue was the failure of the coupling between the hydraulic pump and hydraulic valve assembly. Challenges offered this assembly as the the "hydraulic power unit" for price in 2019 of around $4000. The cost to fly a dealer tech in to replace it would have added another $3000 to $4000 to the repair job. A local hydraulic+machine shop diagnosed the issue as a $4.50 love-joy coupling between the pump and valve assembly and replaced repaired "power unit" for $200 and a case of beer. I will be avoiding Challenge in the future based on these experiences but I recognize that they have a lot of happy customers.

For shops in North America looking for a used guillotine, Printing Finishing Systems in California and Boggs Equipment in Ohio are solid to buy from. I'd recomend getting a 30" guilletine with an air table if you have space and the cost works. Make sure that the machine you buy meets safety and regulatory standards (ie, light curtains to protect from amputation injuries) and that you can buy replacement parts like relays, fuses, hyrdraulic parts, main boards, etc. The dealer should be able to recommend a list of common spare parts. You should also buy a few extra blades and rotate them between your sharpening vendor and your inventory, and have an extra in case one gets damaged by cutting or lost in shipment.

 

[Aardvark Printing]

Anyone here use electric paper cutters / Guillotines?
To cut stacks of paper or stickers etc?

Looking at options for something up to 500mm wide.
Either get a cheap old second hand one. or possibly a chinese one from alibaba,
i need something to get by for now.

Even though it's smaller cutter make sure you get one with a power clamp and at least one spare blade.
Make sure the blades haven't been ground down so far that it won't reach the cutting block.
Keeping a sharp blade on it will avoid a lot of head aches. Make sure it comes with the tools to change the blade safely.
On a 500mm it's a 4 kg razor blade.