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I have never cut double thickness (2.6mm) mount board before. Is it just a case of calibrating the blade depth and stops to account for the extra thickness? Or is there a special technique?
I have an Ultimat Gold.
I have some scraps to practice with first, but thought I'd better check before I fiddle too much.
I found it counterproductive to do the thicker boards so now I don’t offer to do them for anyone. It took so long to set up and reset afterwards that it became a faff I could do without and I didn’t think it was doing my mountcutter much good. Now if someone wants a deep rebate mount I offer to make it up with 5mm foam board covered with whatever colour they want and do it that way. I don’t get many customers asking for the thicker boards and if they do I refer them elsewhere.
Wow @fitz I'm surprised you found it such a problem! If you have a spare blade holder, with comes with a Keencut, then you can keep one set for 1.4mic and one set for 2.4mic etc. You can do incredibly simple but beautiful double mount designs using two different thicknesses of board and add value to sales. If you're at all interested in making money and offering great designs, I'd have another go at it!
@wannabe yup simple as that. It's important to have the blade depth just right, only just cutting the sacrificial mountboard below, otherwise if the blade is too deep you'll start to see some hooking on the corners where the blade bends slightly as it enters.
It was rather faffy I admit as mine doesn’t have a separate cartridge, but I think the more I do the quicker it will be. I cut all my normal mounts first and then the thicker one last so it didn’t interrupt too much.
In this case the customer wanted to match an existing frame so it seemed as good a time as any to start. I must say I rather like the finish so am happy to offer it.
Justin, does it make a difference using a single or double blade? I used single as for no particular reason other than I had only just changed it and gave it no thought.
I almost gave up, and the 8ply boards I used were only 2.2mm.
By the time I’d got the blade depth and the stops right, I’d made the blade blunt; then the new blade wouldn’t cut the same as the last few test cuts on the blunted blade!
I don’t know how you set your blade depth but you don’t have to cut through a board to do it. Put the board under the cutter bar just past it’s edge on the blade side then extend the blade past it on to the slip mat, plus a fraction and try a score on the slip mat.
I’d also been using the personna blades from lion, but the branded ones did a far better job.
Another tip when calibrating the stops, do it on your actual mount, just cut a far smaller aperture than you need, check it corner by corner and if needs be, keep increasing the aperture bit by bit until perfect, but it shouldn’t take 4 corners.
In time you’ll know exactly what the differences are and probably get it right first time, but I’d always test one corner anyway.
Justin, does it make a difference using a single or double blade? I used single as for no particular reason other than I had only just changed it and gave it no thought.
You use always use the single Tech S blades for cutting the mount. Cutting the board to size use Tech D
Yeah i agree, always mount cutter brand blades. Fletcher were double sided and great, but Keencut are a lot more fussy about blades. From memory double sided we're a disaster and single perfect. Look on the Keencut website, there are a few different blades and they're very specific about which is for what.
I use Keencut blades and have both double and single. I remember being told to use single for v-grooves but double was fine for normal mounts, but I may well be remembering incorrectly!
I think you'll find Keencut recommend single especially for 2.4 I remember having a real issue with double on 2.4 and they told me it's the blade. Definitely get another holder!!
I have cut up to 16 ply boards (5.2mm) made from 4 1200 micron rag boards. Note: I have not done this in 15 years.
It can be done with a standard sliding head mat cutter. The process is done from the face with the corners marked with a pencil. This marking has to take into consideration the thickness of the 16 plys. Several shallow cuts are made into the board, following the previous cut. Each cut is a little deeper than the previous until you touch the scrap board below the mount. After the first side is cut through repeat for the other 3 sides. Each cut is also started and stopped shorter than the first cut to avoid a visible overcut from the top.
I switch between 1.4 and 2.6 a few times a day (as I use both for my own work). I have a fletcher but I find once the blade depth is set, I don’t adjust the production stops - which are calibrated for 2.6mm anyway), I just add 2.5mm to the bottom production stop scale. So if it’s a 60mm border, I set that stop to 62.5. It never fails me
Not to reset everything!