Reddit reviews HFS 17" Blade A3 Heavy Duty Guillotine Paper Cutter (A3-17'' Paper Cutter)
We found 2 Reddit comments about HFS 17" Blade A3 Heavy Duty Guillotine Paper Cutter (A3-17'' Paper Cutter). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Heavy Duty Steel Base.Hardened Steel Cutting Blade.Adjustable Paper Clamp.Pre-assembled and ready-to-use out of the box.Scratch resistant coating on grid surface.
Wrong tool for the job
Look for a Guillotine Paper Ream Cutter
https://www.amazon.com/HFS-Blade-Heavy-Guillotine-Cutter/dp/B00MWB1C2A
Find out how many pages you need to cut through, and choose the proper cutter. Once you get to 500page + the price of a cutter rises exponentially.
https://officeequipmentmachineshop.com/products/ERC-Trio-EX-3942-Manual-Stack-Paper-Cutter-Replacement-Clamping-Mechanism?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvdXpBRCoARIsAMJSKqL11uEUqNeAeLtVtzPmOGJ3Qgg8FuEt77igSHGr05njVj9AZ5N_lU0aAkfSEALw_wcB
https://www.amazon.com/Guillotine-Cutter-Desktop-9770EZ-Cutting/dp/B071WF854L
This is the one I brought - my bad, I said eBay before but it was actually Amazon. I don't know why but there seem to be dozens of identical looking guillotines with different brand names at both A4 and A3 size. The US ones seem to be sold by HFS I may be wrong but my guess is they all come from the same factory in China and are simply rebranded.
I have to say I am very happy with mine. It is very solidly built (weighs about 60 pounds) but it takes up a lot of space - with hindsight, the smaller A4 model would have sufficed. However, it does the job really well. I don't want to belittle other peoples experiences, but I think that most of the problems that get highlighted in the reviews are caused by them not using it properly. The key is that the clamping bar that holds the book block in place for cutting needs to be really, really tight to stop movement which makes it look like it is cutting at an angle. After I'd worked that out I haven't had any problems. The blade is removable with care and you can sharpen it yourself.
However, unless you have lots of space in your workshop and you make lots of thick books that need trimming then if your local shop will continue to trim a book for $2.50, I'd stick with them.