So you’ve just laminated a photograph, menu, business card or other document and need an effective way to cut off the excess lamination film. What is the best way to do this? Paper cutters are the most common tool used to do this. So which paper cutter should you use? Here are some ideas.

To begin with, what are you laminating and cutting? If you are trying to cut excess laminating film down to the edge of the document, there is really only one type of paper cutter that you will want to use. This type of paper cutter is called a rotary paper cutter (found here). These paper cutters are designed for precision and make it possible to cut right up to the edge of the document without wavering or being crooked.

What if you simply need to cut the laminated document in half or down in size? If this is the case, you will then want to determine how many sheets you will cut in a day and what your cutting volume will be. For low to medium-volume cutting, a rotary paper cutter (found here) is still probably your best option. Rotary paper cutters can be used to trim excess film and cut documents down to size.

If you need to cut several laminated documents at a time, for medium to higher-volume cutting, a guillotine paper trimmer (found here) may be a good option. These types of cutters, especially Kutrimmer, can cut 10-40 sheets at a time (depending on the model). These cutters are still very precise and easy to use.

If you need to cut hundreds of laminated documents down to size, perhaps business cards, you will want to use a stack paper cutter (found here). These types of paper cutters can still be used to cut laminated documents and are still very accurate. They are designed for medium to high-volume cutting.

Be aware, however, that cutting lamination film will dull the paper cutter blade faster than cutting paper by itself. This shouldn’t be too much of a concern as laminated paper doesn’t significantly increase the rate of dulling.

I have personally used Rotatrim paper cutters to cut laminated documents down to size and find them to be very effective. You can find our entire selection of paper cutters here.

Are you in the market for a reliable, dependable and affordable paper drill? Even if you are only in need of a single-hole paper punch, you may want to consider a paper drill. One model you may want to consider using is the Lassco Spinnit EBM-S single hole paper drill. This is my review.

The Spinnit EBM-S paper drill from Lassco is designed for budget-minded people who are in need of a good reliable paper drill. It is commonly used for small print operations. Lassco has a great reputation for making high quality equipment and the EBM-S is no exception. This drill should easily last you for years.

To begin with, the Spinnit EBM-S paper drill is a single spindle design, which means it can drill one hole at a time. This doesn’t mean it can’t be used for three-hole drilling. It just means that three-hole drilling requires a total of three passes. This drill is capable of drilling through up to two-inches of paper.

The drill itself can be used on most tables and surfaces. It weighs in at 62 pounds, which means it may require a couple of people to move around.

The EBM-S paper drill is turned on by flipping a switch found on the front of the machine. Once on, the handle can be pulled down. This brings the paper drill head down, causing it to drill through the paper. The Spinnit EBM-S uses a hollow drill bit. This style of bit allows drilled paper holes to travel up the bit into a storage compartment. The entire process takes just seconds.

The Spinnit EBM-S uses drilling blocks. Once the paper drill has gone through the paper, it rests in the drilling block. These blocks help give the operation an idea on when the paper has finished drilling and helps prevent damage to the drill bit.

The biggest downside to the EBM-S is that the table where you place the paper is stationary. This means it may take a little longer to drill multiple holes. The EBM-S does, however, include a stationary table with an adjustable back-gauge slide guide system.

The Spinnit EBM-2.1 is an upgraded version of the EBM-S that includes an EZ-Glide movable table that has four interchangeable hole patterns. You can find the Lassco Spinnit EBM-2.1 here.

Overall I consider the Lassco Spinnit EBM-S to be a reliable little machine, ideal for low to medium-volume paper drilling. You can find Lassco’s Spinnit EBM-S paper drill here. You can find our entire selection of paper drills here.

If you need to use a manual stack cutter for cutting reams of paper, the MBM Triumph 4705 may be just what you need. This robust cutter is very popular with our customers. Is it the right cutter for you? Here is my review.

The ability to cut large stacks or reams of paper is a huge benefit if you are a printing press, copy shop or a business that cuts down fliers, card stock or promotional material. Many of our customers will use stack cutters to also cut down business cards. Stack cutters will save you hours of time versus using a traditional paper trimmer.

The MBM Triumph 4705 is at the top of the manual stack cutter list in cutting volume and page size. It has a cutting width of 18 ¾-inches and can cut a stack of paper up to 2 ¾-inches thick

The blades on the Triumph 4705 are made from some of the highest quality metal I have seen in a manual stack paper cutter. They are made from soligen steel. These blades, as they become dull, can be re-sharpened. The ability to sharpen blades will save you a nice chunk of change later down the road.

I have actually used this cutter and the manual lever is effortless to use. It is designed in a way that is long and is leveraged in way that requires little force. I have used this to cut a ream of paper using only one finger. Manual labor shouldn’t be a concern with this cutter.

The backstop on the Triumph 4705 is very easy to use. It is a hand-crank style lever and is turned clockwise to increase cutting depth and counterclockwise to decrease cutting depth. The backstop has an arrow pointing to a ruler, which is extremely accurate and makes it easy to determine where the blade will cut.

One of Triumph’s biggest plusses is safety. Stack paper cutters exert a lot of force and cutting power. Luckily Triumph takes some serious safety measures. They utilize a safety cutting system (SCS), which utilizes a transparent safety guard on the front of the table that locks in place while cutting. Blade changing is even designed to be safer.

Another nice thing about the Triumph 4705 is the clamping mechanism. The 4705 utilizes a lock-down clamp. Many people say it looks like a submarine hatch lever. This style of clamp keeps the paper solidly in place.

The only downside to the Triumph 4705 stack cutter is that it doesn’t have an electric or hydraulic motor. The manual lever, however, is very user friendly and will save you some money. You can find the MBM Triumph 4705 stack cutter here. You can find our entire selection of stack and ream paper cutters here.

So you want to punch holes in a specific place and don’t want to be tied down by a specific design? There’s a machine for that. They are called custom paper hole punches. They are very effective and can be used for one, two, three, four and five-hole punching.

A custom paper punch begins with some sort of punching base. This is usually consists of a metal base, a mounting bar and a lever. The mounting bar is where you place the punch heads. Punch heads are typically purchased separately.

These punch heads are available in different diameters. Simply loosen the mounting bar on the base and slide the punch head onto it. Secure the mounting bar and secure the punch head and you’re ready to start punching paper.  The punch heads can typically be positioned wherever you want them, as long as there is room on the mounting bar.

You can usually slide up to as many as five punch head onto a bar. Be aware, however, that the more punch heads you use, the fewer sheets of paper you can punch.

Custom paper punch bases are typically heavier-duty than a standard paper punch. Many people like to purchase a custom paper punch for that very reason, even if they will be punching paper in a standard three-hole pattern.

Some of the custom paper punch models we carry are the Master punch line from Martin Yale. This includes the 5000 series, the 1325B, the 1325PB and the 1340B. You can our custom Master paper punches here. You can find our entire line of paper punches here.

So you think you want to take a crack at creating your own business cards? No worries. It’s actually pretty easy. I make my own business cards and you can too. One great way to do this is by using a business card cutter. Right now, the CardMate is one of the hottest things out there for doing just that. Here is my review.

To begin with, the CardMate is a very compact little machine. It easily sits on a desk or table. A great place to put it is near your printer. It only weighs about six pounds and is perfect for light to medium-duty use.  It is primarily designed to create business cards, but it can also be used to create teaching cards, labels, product cards and more.

To begin with, you will want to print your cards on a laser or inkjet printer. This is easy to do. The CardMate uses a 10-up pattern, which means you can print a total of 10 business cards per sheet of paper. You can create a business card template using software such as Avery Zweckform, Corel Draw, Microsoft Word, Data Becker, Sigel and others.  We have a CardMate template that you can use to help design your own cards found here.

Once printed, the cards are fed into the machine. A total of two passes are required to create the cards. The machine itself is manually operated by use of a hand crank. It is very easy to do.  The entire process takes less than a minute.

One thing you will want to take into consideration when using the CardMate is that it is not designed to be used with slick or glossy paper. It may work, but it isn’t designed to handle that type of paper. This is because the CardMate uses rubber rollers to pull the paper through the machine. These rollers have habit of slipping on slick paper. I have had customers tell me that they had no problems where others said it seemed to slip on the paper a little.

I have personally used this little machine and have to say that I really like it. It is simple, yet effective. If you want to create your own business cards, and save some serious money in the process, consider getting the CardMate. You can find the CardMate business card cutter here. You can find our entire selection of business card cutters here.

Happy cutting!

As is the case with most sharp objects, they will eventually become dull. This is the case with many high-end paper cutters as well. Over time, paper will dull a blade. So how do you go about getting the blade re-sharpened? You have a couple of options.

So what can dull a paper cutter blade faster than the normal rate of wear? Cutting plastic and laminated paper will wear down a blade faster than normal. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t cut plastic or laminated paper, but blade wear should be taken into consideration. Accidentally cutting staples and paper clips will also cause a blade to wear out prematurely.

Be aware that not all blades can be re-sharpened. Some entry level and low-end cutters are designed with a throwaway blade, which means you will have to get a new blade. For many cutters, sharpening is an affordable way to keep a paper cutter going.

MBM’s line of Triumph cutters is a good example of a cutter that can be re-sharpened. Once the blade becomes dull, it can be easily removed and re-sharpened. Many people like to keep two blades on hand to eliminate downtime. This way the cutter can still be used while the other blade is sharpened.

If you don’t know if your blade can be sharpened or not, call our Service Department at 1-800-658-8788 x129 or fill out this form. They will be able to quickly let you know if this is an option.

If your blade can be sharpened, where do you do this? There are a few options. First of all, our Service Department can have your blade sharpened at our facilities here. They can also help you find someone in your local are that can sharpen the blade.

I have had many customers tell me that you should go to a local barbershop or salon to find out where they get their scissors sharpened. Often the same people that sharpen those scissors can sharpen a paper cutter blade. I have never done this myself, but have had customers swear by it.

What if you sharpen a blade that isn’t supposed to be sharpened? I have heard of customers that have attempted to have a blade sharpened that wasn’t intended to. The end result is usually mixed. Because the metal in disposable blades isn’t meant to be sharpened, the blade will often break or become irreversibly damaged.

Our Service Department is very knowledgeable. They are more than happy to help. For paper cutter maintenance, blade sharpening or repair, call 1-800-658-8788 x129. If you need a new paper cutter, our huge selection of paper cutters can be found here.

Good luck sharpening your paper cutter!

We’ve all been to restaurants and have all handled and used the menu. While not always the case, most restaurant menus consist of a single folded 11 x 17 sheet of paper or an 11 x 17 sheet of paper cut in half. Restaurant menus have soda spilled on them, dipping sauce smeared all over them, experience chicken wing accidents and much more. So how do menus endure daily abuse and use? They are laminated.

Laminating film makes a menu easy to clean off, prevents liquid damage and gives menus the rigidity they need to keep from tearing. So what are the best laminators to use for laminating a menu? There are two ways to do this. You will either want to use a pouch laminator or a roll laminating machine.

If you are using a pouch laminator, you will want to use a large 12 x 18 –inch pouch (found here). Place the printing menu inside the pouch and run it through the laminator. Once laminated, the menu can be creased or bound for use. Often times the menu isn’t folded or bound, but left as a single sheet. The slightly larger pouch will allow for a small overlapped border around the menu. If you don’t like this, it can be easily trimmed off.

If you are using a roll laminating machine, you can often laminate two menus simultaneously. This can be easily done if you are using a roll laminating machine that is 25-inches or wider. Once laminated, the menu can be trimmed down using a rotary trimmer. The most common roll film our customers use for menus can be found here.

Roll laminators are typically better for high-volume laminating, but I have found that more restaurants use a pouch laminator for menus.  The thickness of film used will depend on the restaurant’s preference. The higher the mil thickness, the thicker the film will be. A mil is one-thousandth of an inch. I probably wouldn’t go with anything thinner than 5 mils thick.

While not completely necessary, many of our customers also like to use a corner rounder to round the corners on the menus. This makes the menu less dangerous (pointy corners = ouch) and makes the menus look nice.

Here is a list of what you may need for your restaurant menu:

• Pouch Laminator or Roll Laminator
• Pouch Laminating Film or Roll Laminating Film
• Rotary Paper Trimmer
• Corner Rounder
• Paper Creaser

Good luck with your menus! We have a lot of people that do this, so don’t feel too overwhelmed. The end results will look great!

I had a customer ask me today how long a hollow paper drill bit will stay sharp. It was a good question, but the answer is a little difficult. There is no set defined time that a paper drill bit is rated to last. Here are a few things to take into consideration when gauging the lifespan of a paper drill bit.

The thickness of the stack of paper and the thickness of an individual sheet of paper will affect how sharp the drill bit stays. The more paper you drill through, the more friction and heat will be generated, dulling the bit faster. Cardstock will also dull a paper drill bit faster than standard copy paper. The more you use the drill the faster the bit will go dull as well.

So how can you prolong the life of a paper drill bit? Drill ease wax is one way of doing this. A properly waxed paper drill bit will create less friction and will stay sharp longer. You can find our drill ease wax here.

What if your hollow paper drill bit is already dull? We sell drill bit sharpeners designed to sharpen hollow drill bits. Most drill bit sharpeners feature a triangle or cone-shaped tip that fits inside the hollow part of the drill bit, which spins and sharpens the bit. You can find our paper drill bit sharpeners here.

Regardless of how long the bit lasts, paper drills are very nice machines to have. You can find our entire selection of paper drills here. You can also find our replacement hollow paper drill bits here.

Stack cutters are very useful machines. They can be used to cut down card stock, prints, business cards and so much more. There is a new stack paper cutter in town called the Tamerica Guillomax Plus. This cutter has been around for about ½ a year. So, the question of the day is: Is this a paper cutter you should consider buying? I’ll give you some of the pros and cons.

First off, the Guillomax Plus is eerily similar in look and design to the MBM Triumph 4705 stack paper cutter. The handle design, the clamping mechanism, the adjustable backstop and the Plexiglas guards all make the Guillomax Plus look like a Triumph clone. This is a good thing.

Because this cutter appears to be a reverse-engineered Triumph, it works in a very similar way. The handle pulls down in a similar way. The cutting resistance is about the same. Making length adjustments with the backstop is just as easy as well.

My favorite feature of the Guillomax Plus is the included stand. This isn’t just a flimsy sheet metal stand. This is a solid metal stand that is designed to be used with the Guillomax Plus.  The price is about $1,000 less than the Triumph 4705 as well, which is a pretty good deal.

The biggest con with this paper cutter is that it is relatively new and doesn’t have the time-tested trials our other stack cutters have. Tamerica, however, is a reputable company.

Overall, I really like the Tamerica Guillomax Plus. Time will tell if this becomes a customer favorite, but I feel it is off to a very good start. You will find the Tamerica Guillomax Plus stack paper cutter here. You will find our entire selection of stack paper cutters here.

So next month I will be celebrating my 10-year wedding anniversary. At 10 years, I can’t help but reflect back on that time prior to getting married. To begin with, my fiancé and I didn’t have a lot of money. I can still remember talking about how we were going to come up with wedding invitations. We had to create hundreds of them, and it wasn’t going to be cheap.

We ended up deciding to make them ourselves. We would potentially save hundreds of dollars. Now I understand not everyone will want to go down this route, but here is what we did.

Thinking back on it now, I can’t help but laugh a little. Many of the machines we used to make our invitations I now help sell through ABC Office.

Materials Used:

• Navy blue card stock
• Linen card stock cover (light tan)
• Velum paper
• 1/4-inch wide ribbon

Equipment Used:

• Single-hole punch
• Stack paper cutter
• Paper folding machine
• High-resolution copy machine

These are the steps we took to create the invitation:

1. First of all, we single-folded the navy blue cardstock in half. We didn’t fold it along the shortest part of the paper, but the longest part of the paper.
2. We then took the light tan linen card stock and printed a picture my father-in-law took with his digital camera along with the wording, location of the reception, etc. We printed (in black & white) two invitations per one-sheet of light card stock. Once printed, we cut the light tan linen card stock on a manual stack cutter down the center of the longest part of the paper.
3. The cut tan card stock now fit nicely into the single-folded navy blue card stock. We were lucky enough to find a copy shop that had a high-resolution copier as well as a paper folder and a stack cutter that they let us use for free.
4. We then went on to cut a bunch of 8 ½ x 11-inch velum paper with the stack paper cutter. Now that everything was folded and cut, we were able to put everything together.
5. We put the velum paper on top of the printed picture and slid it into the navy-blue folded cover. Once we finished this, we single-hole punched the corners of the invitations. My fiancé cut ribbon into four to five-inch lengths that we threaded through the punched corners and then tied. The ribbon helped keep everything together.

The invitations were a hit and we got several compliments from people on how unique they were. I think they meant “unique” in a good way. Sure we saved a lot of money, but I now also have some great memories of making invitations with my wife.

The type of equipment and supplies we used then (that I now help sell) are the stack paper cutters (found here), paper folding machines (found here), single-hole punches (found here) and the card stock (found here).

I hope this helps someone facing a similar situation. Now I need to talk with my wife and see if I can get a picture of the invitations so you can all see what they looked like.

Do you have experiences making your own wedding invitations? Post your comments here!