Retired 'Newbe' ask for advice

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Ron Sixby

Grumbler in Training
Joined
Sep 28, 2007
Posts
11
Loc
San Ramon
Hello I am an a retired newbe that has a problem, I have a C & H Mat cutter that is giving me some problems, when making a V groove the center curves inward for the last 1/2 inch. There is no movement in the cutting head and have always use a new blade. At my age I have plenty of time to try anything. Does anyone have a suggestion? I want perfection in the work I do. :beer: and I cannot even have a cool one.
 
From what I've gathered and learned there are a few things that could be going on.

1. Stance - Make sure that you find a comfortable position and always be consistent. Just like your golf swing, it makes all the difference in the world.
2. Pay attention and be aware to the pressure that you are applying with your wrist as you pull the head through the motion.
3. (restatement of the obvious) Always use fresh clean blades.
4. Always use fresh spoil board
5. Make sure your work is not slipping.
6. Watch the depth of the blade and how deep you are cutting into the spoilboard (toomuch can cause the effect you are having)
 
other than holding your tounge just right you do want to be sure you don't have the blade out too far. it will start okay but towards the middle of your cut it would start to wander of course and probably pull itself back straight towards the end of the cut. keep a constant pressure on the head, i have on old caruthers mat cutter, now retired, but it was very sensitive to pressure on the head and could wander such as you desrcibed if you didn't keep a constant pressure on it. of course change the blades often too
 
In addition to the above suggestions, keep a constant pressure on the hold-down bar, too.

There is a tendency to rock back (lift your body) slightly as you near the end of your cut. That lessens the pressure on the guide bar and may result in the hooks you are seeing.
 
Is your bar true to start with? a 1/32nd" when cutting a mat is not noticable, but when v-grooving that little bit will be obvious!

Clean the rods, clean the bar, take it off and get all the lint out. Put it back together and use your squaring blocks and get it all back nice and tight. Then try the v-groove again!

You could just check it for square using the squaring blocks, but as long as I am truing the machine I also like to really clean the heck out of it as well!
 
Ron. Are you using the traditional 'flip the dropout, shave the bevel and fit it back in the hole' method for V-grooves'? If so, at what stage are you getting the curve? I'm guessing it's the bevel shaving stage. I am a long time C&H user and the cutter is capable of excellent V-grooves. The knack for getting a good cut when shaving the bevel is to put the dropout piece in the center of the bar - not close up to the ruler. Then dip the blade an inch or two away from the dropout and follow though from there. When you reach the end of the cut, don't release the blade. Overshoot by a couple of inches. The bar on the C&H will creep back slightly if you relax pressure with your left hand and there is an unconcious tendency to do this as you near the end of a cut. Overshooting both ends will minimise this.
 
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