Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboard

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Fellows Framing
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Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboard

Post by Fellows Framing »

Hello,

Does anyone have any advice on how to calibrate a keencut gold cutter for 3500 microns thick mountboard please?

I have tried the way I use for 1400 micron thick board adjusting the green/ start of cut and red/ end of cut cursors. The green is ok ie I can get right position to start cut with no over or under cut.

The red/end of cut though is undercutting by 3mms and I have I have used up all the adjustment on the red scale so cannot lenghten it any more.

I believe the depth of blade is ok as cutting the mount board and lightly scoring undermount.

What should I be doing?

Thanks
Sarah
Attachments
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Undercut
IMG_1815.JPG (18.5 KiB) Viewed 5504 times
Start of cut/ green adjustment position - ok
Start of cut/ green adjustment position - ok
IMG_1812.JPG (22.98 KiB) Viewed 5505 times
End of cut/ red adjustment position - run out of adjustment
End of cut/ red adjustment position - run out of adjustment
IMG_1811.JPG (32.61 KiB) Viewed 5505 times
kuduframes
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Re: Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboa

Post by kuduframes »

I found it easier to leave the calibration correct for standard mount thickness and then make a note of how much to compensate on the start and end of cut settings to get a clean cut. In your case you would change the mount width setting for the end of cut to increase the length of the cut by 3 mm, in other words if your width is 50 mm, set the stop to 47 mm. ( I think I've got this the right way round as I havent used my keencut for quite a while)
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Re: Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboa

Post by Not your average framer »

This will very nearly drive you nuts until you get the hang of it. The start of cut stop position varies according to how far forward you position the blade depth in the blade carrier. The are those who will tell you not to have hardly any blade penetration into the slip mat, which is the strip on scrap mountboard that you have below the mount you are cutting. Unfortunately, when cutting thicker mountboards it is possible to run out of the length of the calibration scale on the start of cut stop. I've not encountered this same problem on other brands of mountcutter.

You can compensate for this a little by increasing the blade depth, but sometimes you end up still being a little short and when this happens, I often finish the cut by hand and by eye using a thinner and nice sharp new blade. Although this does work to a large extent, I find it easier to ingore the stops and make the adjustment using the measurements on the rules directly. This means that when you read the dimensions you are cutting too on the rules, they are wrong.

There's a bit of trial and error to working this out, which I don't fully understand, but I need to use a different correction on my Ultimate Gold to the one I used on my originally Ultimat. I've no idea why there is a different correction between the Ultimat Gold and the earlier original Ultimat, so I not sure whether a correction that works on one mountcutter will necessarily work on another mountcutter which is the same model, so beware. Also be aware that there appears to be a difference in calibration between single edge and double edge blades.

Over time I have learnt that difficulties and wastage become much more of a problem when using mountboards with a thickness greater than 2.5mm and I try not to offer mountboards that are any thicker. Sometimes as the old saying goes "discretion is the better part of valour".
Mark Lacey

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Re: Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboa

Post by kuduframes »

Just an afterthought to my earlier post,
you will need to do a trial cut everytime you change the blade depth and check the amount of compensation to apply to the end of cut (and often the start of cut) settings. This does not take too long once you get the hang of it.
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Re: Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboa

Post by prospero »

I don't often cut board that thick. :?

With 2mm board. cutting in one pass, you don't need to compensate with the setting on the top stop as the
extra blade extension does it for you. You do have to decrease the bottom stop setting though. More than you
would think, I take off 2mm. So for a margin of 70mm, 70mm at the top and 68mm at the bottom does it.

For 3.5mm board I would do it in three passes. The best way to get the settings spot-on is to do a few tests on a scrap
piece. But it's the same principle, you don't need to alter the top stop when you have the blade at full extension.
It's a long-winded exercise but once you have cracked it make a note for next time. :wink:
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Re: Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboa

Post by Not your average framer »

I also find it necessary to do a trail cut when changing the blade depth setting. I may be nice to think that you can return to your original settings after cutting a different thickness board, but it usually still needs that little tweek to get it spot on.

I tend to think that there must be a way of getting everything back to where it was without needing to recheck before cutting the next mount, but it's not always just right, don't ask me why!
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Re: Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboa

Post by StevenG »

Not your average framer wrote:I also find it necessary to do a trail cut when changing the blade depth setting. I may be nice to think that you can return to your original settings after cutting a different thickness board, but it usually still needs that little tweek to get it spot on.

I tend to think that there must be a way of getting everything back to where it was without needing to recheck before cutting the next mount, but it's not always just right, don't ask me why!
I've come to the conclusion that my mount cutter & it's tweaky bits belong in a separate universe when logic & continuity bear no relevance to our world.
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Re: Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboa

Post by Not your average framer »

It can seem that way. Whether, or not this is to do with the mountcutter, or if there is a human failing coming into this, I am not sure. I have learned the hard way that some things never work out exactly as are expecting no matter have carefully you try to do everything in the most exacting way possible. It's reassuring to know that it's not just me.

:roll:
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Re: Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboa

Post by Fellows Framing »

Thanks all for your help - apologies for delay to thanks you.

So in the end I used adjusting the stop by 3mms method which worked ok.

I then spend a very frustrating time getting it set back to normal thickness board despite noting blade depth, adjustment scale readings before I changed them. It cut fine on small mounts and then on bigger mounts it did not, sometimes it cut through ok and then it did not :head: . Agh...I am still not 100% confident I have found the sweet spot.

What have I learned? To refuse all jobs that need extra thick mounts !

Thanks all.

Sarah
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Re: Calibrating keencut gold mount cutter for thick mountboa

Post by IFGL »

Simply use a match box and an old wire coat hanger!
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