The Framers Forum

Hi all,
My Ultimate Gold is hooking like crazy. I've been through the old posts about problems with hooking and think I have tried the following suggested solutions, but with only limited success:

- quick, confident insertion / slow insertion
- not leaning on the bar
- rubber feet in the middle as well as the ends of the machine
- a solid even surface under the entire machine
- blade depth set to just cut through the mount and just cut into the slip mat
- using the 12 blade
- using a new blade
- using a fresh slip mat

I wonder if the outstanding issue is movement in the cutting head. I did tighten it up so there's no movement but it still moves ok, but spoke to a very experienced framer who suggested I might have gone about this the wrong way. Apparently, the trick is to tighten the two bolts equally, and in tiny increments, pressing down on the head after each adjustment to reset the bearings. By the time I got this advice, however, I think I'd already been adjusting the bolts independently, big turns, not pressing on the head... all wrong in other words. Do you think this might be my issue? Any ideas on how I can undo my fumbling with the bolts on the cutting head?

goes without saying that this is driving me nuts and any advice would be hugely welcome

Many thanks,
Calico

Is this a new problem? If so, try cleaning the silicone rubber strip on the underside of the cutting bar.

My mountcutter is in the coldest part of my shop and can cause problems with hooking during the colder weather, because the silicone rubber strip is not so grippy when it gets cold. This is a scientific fact of life, due to the fact that the hardness of the silicone rubber is to some degree infuenced by temperature.

When the aluminium base is new, the anodised surface which has a matt finish provides a certain amount of grip, but as it gets used the surface can become smoother and provide less grip. Both my original Ultimat and more recently my newer Ultimat Gold now perform better with a piece of thin white card stuck to the aluminium base plate with finger lift tape.

You still need to have the usual slip mat on top of this. It just provides a better grip to help prevent the slip mat and the mount from moving while inserting the blade and then spring back as the blade travels along the cut.

I have a digital level called a bevel box, (From Axminster Power Tools), which I have found helpful at times like this. It enables me to check that the mountcutter is seated on a flat surface and to counter any tendancy for the mountcutter to sag in the middle. I do this by checking that both ends are at the same angle (aluminium base not twisted) and the angle along the length of the base to check the amount of sag in the middle.

Odd bits of mountboard and thin card can be used to support the middle of the base and thereby remedy any sag in the middle. Newer Keencuts usually are less critical about these things. Age affects everything sooner or later, but the good news is all that these issues are simple to solve.

Thanks, that's lots of new information to try out

The machine isn't that old - bought it new last August but have used it very infrequently. To be honest, I hadn't notice the hooking until I told a customer I could do them a V groove the other day and my jaw hit the floor when I saw what I'd managed to produce - looked like I'd made it with a hatchet rather than a mountcutter!

if I remeber rightly the manual which you would have has a section on trouble shooting. But hooking of the blade is usually sytematic of the blade going to deep into the backing board causing deflection and hooking. Try re setting the depth and the reset the over and under cuts.

As i said, i've done my best to set the depth of the blade so that it only just cuts through the mount and into the slip matt.
As for setting the stops, I have to do this incessantly anyway because I have to stash the cutter away when not in use and it seems to need re-calibrating e-v-e-r-y--t-i-m-e

I think you need to invest in some pulleys and sky hooks

could it be that the bar that the cutter runs on is flexing upwards slightly as the blade is inserted? my only other suggestion would be to start the cut early, inserting the blade whilst its moving..

Oh, I almost forgot I also use the 0.15 TECH S single edge blades, which made a very big difference for me.

Thanks for the extra suggestions, fingers crossed something will work

Calico