Advice needed on a Substrate Cutter please?

[Robert Lambie]

we have the keenkut standing cutter, a wall saw similar to sawtrax.
each serve a purpose and get used occasionally.

the wall saw we use least. it also creates the most mess and air born debris.
the keenkut is good but very limited.

what we also have and use it some times all day long is an electric foot pedal operated 3m wide guillotine. we bought it second hand from an auction about ten years ago and has never missed a beat. it cuts aluminium, composite, mild steel, stainless steel and more all in a second with one tap of your foot.

[Kevin Flowers]

Jason
wall saw ;eaves a slight raised edge on composite even with a real good blade, also judging by what happens when you hand cut with a knife i would think the keen cut does as well. Not a problem most of the time but with Flat Bed printing it can be, had a load of boards printed for myself recently and they had be saw cut they could not clean them up because they would have lost the white background and exposed the raw ali. Not too much of a problem as they went up high but cut your hands to pieces when handling. If they had been for close up work would not have got away with it. A guillotine leaves a nice slightly bevelled edge, which even helps hide the composite core which is a bonus if no trim is being used.

Kev

[Jason Xuereb]

Hey Kevin,

Sawtrax have an ACM insert which is basically two cutting wheels that is meant to leave no burr and gives the same effect as a guillotine.

Video here: http://www.sawtrax.com/video/ACM-Insert-low.wmv

I’d be looking to use this if it works as described.

[Robert Lambie]

the thing with the sawtrax is its a great multi-substrate cutting tool but for precise cutting in volume i have my doubts. as i say, we have one very similar if not the same and the build of them is more like a Mechano set than a wall saw.

thats not to saying the additional device you mention will not do a good job, but if you investing in a flatbed your talking high volume cutting, which reverts me back to the guillotine.

on a side note you should also run cutting tests on the various media you wish to use with actual prints on them. mess around, cut into, score and flex the substrate. direct to board UV printing has its downsides too and when cutting we have had lots of issues never mentioned or took into consideration.
things like the print shattering on the board. cracking of prints, flaking and more… all as a result of different methods of cutting the boards after printing onto them.

[Jason Xuereb]

Cheers for the info Rob.

I don’t envisage doing high volume cutting.

If we had an order for 100 ACM panels we’d order them in already pre-cut. We’d probably cut more corflute inhouse and small size orders from scrap material we have on hand. Or say we have an order for say 50 A4 Corflute pieces we’d print them on a sheet and finish them later.

A guillotine would be good but unless its a CNC type cutter I don’t need where you could use a stop guide to make multiple cuts that are the same size.

I’ve tested the printer we’ve purchased using our Javelin and the ink is fine.

[Jason Xuereb]

http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/S927#

This type of machine if it doesn’t squash corflute or allows to the clamp pressure to be adjusted might work.

[Lorraine Clinch]

The Keencut, and the newer Steeltrak leave a really good finished edge, slightly rolled, feels smooth to the touch, far better than using an electric saw, and doesn’t have to be finished by hand, as the saw does.
The downside, as said, is that you cannot cut along the length of a full sheet, but how often do you do this anyway?

Lorraine

[Jason Xuereb]

quote Lorraine Clinch:

The Keencut, and the newer Steeltrak leave a really good finished edge, slightly rolled, feels smooth to the touch, far better than using an electric saw, and doesn’t have to be finished by hand, as the saw does.
The downside, as said, is that you cannot cut along the length of a full sheet, but how often do you do this anyway?

Lorraine

Lorraine,

Can you load an 8x4foot sheet and cut it down the 4 foot height? The ST210 says it can only cut 84" in height. Which would be a problem with full sheets.

[Jason Xuereb]

quote Jason Xuereb:

quote Lorraine Clinch:

The Keencut, and the newer Steeltrak leave a really good finished edge, slightly rolled, feels smooth to the touch, far better than using an electric saw, and doesn’t have to be finished by hand, as the saw does.
The downside, as said, is that you cannot cut along the length of a full sheet, but how often do you do this anyway?

Lorraine

My bad got my sizes back to front.

[Denise Goodfellow]

Hi

We are limited for space, so have opted for a frestool saw and guides. We use this on our "dirty" bench which has a top which gets replaced quite oftern. So no worries if the saw marks it.

Just a thought…. 😀

[John Hughes]

We have a 4′ press guillotine and as Rob said, great piece of kit. Ours has a adjustable back stop for doing multiple cuts – though very rarely gets used as we cut to printed cross hairs.

Have been looking for guillotine for years that will cut foamex but with no joy.

John

[Duncan Wilkie]

We use this until with great success…
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[Jason Xuereb]

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

We’ve demo’d the Keencut Steeltrak next door at Spandex and we’ve gone with that. It will be good for corflute and foamed pvc etc.

We’ll be looking into a vertical panel saw from safety speed cut for timber etc shortly.

Thanks for all the feedback and advice.

[Jason Xuereb]

Anyone want to set it up for me.

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[David Rowland]

not strong enough to lift it Jason ? 🙂

[Jason Xuereb]

Not tall enough to reach the top of it Dave. I’m as tall as Rob.

[David Rowland]

ah an small offcut cutter lol

[Warren Beard]

No thanks mate, did my own one a while back and took quiet a bit of fiddling to get it all squared up etc

Good luck but once it’s up it’s a great cutter.

cheers

Warren