Question on upgrading mount cutter.

[DEEPJOY]

Hi Boys and Girls

I use currently a big boy (60"/1500mm) Keencut Gold mount cutter. I have in no way exhausted it's features and uses, nor is it in bad condition, in fact quite the opposite it is mint.

My fancy has been tickled to have me start looking at CMC cutters, but my framing work load does not really justify one, but the time aspect I have to frame does. With this in mind do you think a half way house solution is called for, I was thinking about a Valiani 150 manual mount cutter? I should have perhaps now bought the one Bagpus had up for sale.

Should I stick or twist???

Your thoughts and advice would be very helpful.

[mho]

I went down the secondhand route for a CMC and after taking everything into account, went for the Wizard 8000,
got a cracking deal on it. Framers corner installed and set it up for me, along with some basic training, one of the best things
I have ever bought for the business (along with my Cassese CS199MXL), you can offer so much more to your customers, I have no doubt in time saved and additional features for mount cutting it will easily pay for its self many times over.

[Steve N]

Think about what you are going to use it for, which features do you want to use and how often,

D0 you cut more than 50 mounts a week

Do you cut batches of 100's of mounts

Do you cut batches of multi window mounts

Do you regularly cut different shape window mounts ie circle and ovals, rounded corners

Do you do a lot of repeat work for regular customers who all have their own size and style of mounts that they use all time, say every couple of weeks

Have you got room for a CMC (say the size of a double bed) in your workshop

If you can answer yes to two or more of the above questions, get a CMC, if not you should have bought Bagpus's Valiani, which is a good bit of kit by the way


Plus I like doing your difficult double multi window mounts with combined shaped windows

[MarkScrivens]

You can mess about forever and not get to where you want to be.

I got a Wizard 8000, and although I don't use it nearly enough, I can do what I want with very little effort.
It's like having a family, you can never afford, and the time is not right - but you do it anyway.

Buy a Wizard and be relaxed, you can do almost anything that should come through your door.

[DEEPJOY]

Thanks chaps

Do all CMC machines have card board box templates?

I am interested in cutting black conductive (anti-static) flat board.

[GeoSpectrum]

The Gunnar does.

[Abacus]

The wizard 8000 only cuts at 45 degrees, so is not good for boxes

[Graysalchemy]

Tru cuts can be used for boxes, de bossing, cutting glass etc with the right tooling.

Cm c's are also a must have if you use deep bevel mountboard, though not all will cut the thicker 3500 micron boards.

I wouldn't be able to do any of my mounted work now without one.

[grahamdown]

Like you, probably, i don't produce large volumes each week but was getting more and more requests for the new extra thick mounts (3.5mm) and one customer wanted multiple windows so cutting by hand was a nightmare!

Gunnar often take back older machine and refurbish them and upgrade them with the F1 hybrid head and sell them at a good price -which is what i went for. You can, if you are short of space, also mount it at a near vertical angle on the wall which reduces the required floor space significantly.

If you are planning to cut the new thick boards beware as i don't believe the Wizard can cut that thick.

[DEEPJOY]

Hi All

Thank you very much for your feedback.

I think that I would like to cut the 3.5mm mount board, box cutting facility, easy user software and the smaller machine footprint so it starts to lean towards a particular machine.

Any others can claim they do the above?

[Roboframer]

It's all well and good having a vertical/almost vertical table but unless the cuts are organised so that any complete fall outs actually do fall out completely out of the way, you'll have to stand there and make sure they do - I have to do that now and again and my table is only 40 degrees or so. There are vacuum versions I suppose, don't know if they have an angle they don't work above though.

When biting the CMC bullet you get what you pay for, without a doubt, but even the cheapest will make life so much easier for you, whether it can do stuff beyond cutting mounts or not.

If buying new ask exactly who will be giving tech support - the answer you require is the people you wrote the cheque out to, not independent engineers, trust me!

[grahamdown]

I have my Gunnar mounted on the wall and yes i do stand and watch as it cuts - but then in my experience so do most people.

True the window can slide down behind the board if you are not careful but I've found that a couple of pieces of removable tape (which can be used time and time again) stuck across the window cut as it goes stops any danger of it dropping down. without the wall mounting i would not have had room to install it.

[doogey]

CMC all the way! i have a valiani entry level cmc bought about 6 years ago and had all the reservations and justifications as you had!!! but i would never be without it now!! you can always rent one

[DEEPJOY]

In reference to the wall mounted issue, don't some mount cutters now come with vacuum beds which would do away with the the cut out falling down?

[Merlin]

Yes, some CMC's come with Vacuum beds.
I have never yet seen one that is available wall mounted though.

One day maybe.

[Steve N]

Would need a pretty strong wall ............

[IFGL]

Valiani box making tools, including perforator

[Not your average framer]

Oooo! That's a neat bit of kit!

[IFGL]

It really is, you can of course use any cmc to crease card, trouble is if you want to use corugated card the creaser should roll not drag, there is also the M3 package creator software which is a dedicated packaging creator, this will show you a 3d finished box. you have to pay extra for this, but it is the only one you can really make boxes properly on, I know people will disagree and you can probably get a reasonable box with corugated card on other cmc's, you could also get reasonable results with a pair of scissors, you get my point.

[ChrisG]

Okay other than cost are there any disadvantages in CMC over manual?