MAKEASY Paper Cutter 12 Inch, Heavy Duty Paper Cutter for A4 Paper, Guillotine Paper Cutter 400 Sheet Capacity, Solid Steel Construction, Beige

Pros Use for 120 sheets of 20 lb paper and it cuts through like butter Saves a huge amount of time on large batches Cons Hard to visually gauge where to cut like with a regular paper cutter, you must know the exact measurement to cut instead Not for small quantities of paper, better to use regular paper cutter for that Takes a long time to set up each cut Ex: cutting 8 cuts out of one stack of 100 papers, you cut the first, then have to unwind the weight that holds the paper in place, release the blade and place it up, move the paper to next position, then rewind the weight that holds the paper, re-release the blade, and then cut.

I have a half a dozen paper cutters and they all do well cutting single sheets and smaller pieces, but I needed a cutter that would cut lots of paper at one time. I like making “blank books” and this is the crème de la crème. I absolutely love, love, love this cutter. It cuts like butter. It can cut 200+ sheets at one time. The quality is top of the line. The locking mechanism ensures no slipping or sliding of paper. It is LARGE and very HEAVY, which makes it sturdy and durable. I get my husband to pick it up and move it. But I have it stationed on a moveable shelving station so I can move it around in my workshop. It is definitely worth the money if you craft on a weekly basis.

This is a very heavy cutter that works well, but requires some light assembly. The instructions for using it are a single sheet of pictures with very basic descriptions. Nothing fancy, but more than enough to be able to understand the machine. The cutting area is 12” X 12”. We’ve used it with up to 1/4” stacks of 20 lb copy machine paper, which it had no problem with. If you’re cutting something that’s only a few inches wide it can feel a bit cramped, but if you release the clamp slightly after making the cut and drag the papers on the table toward you before trying to pick them up it will be much easier. If you’re cutting something where there will be fairly small scraps left, do NOT reach underneath the guard and blindly grab them. The blade is very sharp. We use a 1” flat paint brush to drag the scraps out where we can pick them up safely. There is a slight problem with the accuracy of the measuring grid. It's 1/16” off. It’s not a big deal for what we use it for, but it can easily be corrected by setting the paper guide 1/16” smaller than the size you actually want. There is one thing I wish were different: When not in use, I would have preferred that the blade lock at the lowest point, which would be against the red strip at the bottom of its travel. As it is now, the blade locks at the top of its travel. It wouldn’t take much for curious paws or fingers to reach in under the blue guard or even remove the guard completely. It’s loosely held in place by slipping over a peg at the right and by sliding onto the metal cabinet at the left. Even with the guard in place, the edge of the blade is only slightly higher than the edge of the guard. You can see the blade above the marker I am holding and also the reflection of the marker in the blade. To protect things a bit better, I placed a piece of thick cardboard on the table, gently clamped it in place and brought the blade to the bottom without cutting into the cardboard. I rolled the end of the cardboard that stuck out back into the plastic guard. The blade isn’t locked, but it is protected from anyone sticking a finger or paw under there. It wouldn’t be hard to tie the handle to the paper tray to prevent the blade arm from being moved, but the handle can also be removed. Something to consider if you’ll be storing the cutter where it’s easy for others to get at. Other than what I’ve mentioned above, so far we are very happy with the cutter and would recommend it to anyone for hobby or light business uses. One star was subtracted for the inaccuracy of the measuring grid and for the lack of safety of the blade position when locked.

When cutter arrived, it had very little instructions. The main issue is it came damaged (the box was fine and undamaged). I tried putting broken parts back in place , however, they will not stay in place. Resulting in crooked cuts. It does cut smoothly and without issues. Going to return because I need straight cuts. See photos of guide bar that keeps popping out and there is a silver rod that falls out also

There were no instructions included with the paper cutter....just a sheet with pictures and vague info. I was able to figure it out, but the cut fence that is adjustable with a knob was difficult to move, and it doesn't stay together. It is very easy to unscrew the knob and then the nut falls into the little slot and it is next to impossible to get it back on the knob only to have it fall off again. I've just left the nut off and don't use the cut fence. It would be wonderful if it did work. The blade is very sharp and does a wonderful job of cutting a large stack of paper.

I’m not going to lie, it took me two tries to receive a cutter that worked. I ordered this exact same cutter from another seller, and it arrived damaged. It looked like someone had already used it, maybe it didn’t work right, so they returned it (and I’m thinking maybe Amazon sent it out again, so I’m not holding it against the seller.) Even so, I ordered a replacement from THIS seller because I was afraid that I would get the same broken cutter back again if I stuck with the same seller. It was a big pain to return because this cutter is extremely heavy. BUT— I took a chance because of the excellent reviews and ordered The same exact model from a different seller (this one!). And this one was the charm! It DOES cut like butter! I even cut through a pile of tagboard, and then through a pile of booklets. I even cut the binding off of a textbook so that I could free the pages without having to cut them out with an X-Acto knife. I am so glad that I took a chance by ordering a replacement from this seller. (The damaged one came from a different seller, but it was the exact same model.) Another thing I would like to say is, the first one (that didn’t work) came packaged in a single box. This one, from MakeEasy, was double-boxed and I think maybe the better packaging made a difference in that the product arriving in perfect working condition. I love it and I’m so glad I ordered it. It’s going to make my life so much easier. Ha Ha — MakeEasy. Get it??

Solid construction and VERY heavy. But this cut through the spine of a 250+-page music book like it was nothing. The clamp is so strong that I've also used it as a sort of book press to flatten spines before trimming. The measurements seem spot-on. I found the backset guide doesn't always default to completely perpendicular, so I have to be sure that's straight by eyeing it next to the lines on the base of the cutter, but that's no big deal. Other than that, my only caution is that it will chew up a lot of real estate on a work table, and it's so heavy that you'll be tempted to leave it out. But in terms of function, it's very well designed, intuitive and super easy to use. I used this to cut the spines off of about 20 books of sheet music before binding them with a comb binder, and I knocked out the whole job in an afternoon. 4.75 stars, so rounding it up to a full 5.

Why I didn’t get this before?! This paper cutter is the best investment I’ve made for my bookbinding projects. It arrived quite promptly and, although it came without clear instructions, I was able to assemble it by watching here and YouTube. It is compact so it fits on top of an old Singer sewing machine. ;) It cuts nicely and accurately through the signatures of my books. I am extremely satisfied with it and use it a lot!