cutting rolls

[Lothman]

can I cut a 24"roll down to 17"?

Could this be done on a large circular saw?

 

[The Hat]

Could this be done on a large circular saw?

Very much so, but and there’s always a BUT, your saw will have to fitted with a small toothed blade, a standard wood blade won’t work..

I once used a fine toothed hand hacksaw to cut a 61 cm gloss roll in half clamped in a wood vice with a piece of wood for a straight guide, a print shop guillotine will also work..

 

[Nicolas Goosen]

You want to attack a round heavy roll of paper with a circular saw? I hope you have medical
insurance.

Never-mind the paper dust that will accumulate on the rough edge and probably cause you print problems...

A good paper merchant should be able to do this for you on a slitter/rewinder.

 

[Dan Yeager]

Don't do it! I'm a retired cabinetmaker, and I can attest that sawing a cylinder to shorten it is DANGEROUS. If you could restrain it in a cradle and use the saw's guide slots to feed it perfectly squarely. it could work. But, the paper will fuzz no matter how sharp and fine-toothed your blade, and then there is the problem of re-registering for a second cut, because the diameter of the roll plus the height of the cradle will prevent cutting in one pass.

But the fuzz will be the problem - many printers will refuse to feed even slightly imperfect paper. A sharp blade, a straightedge, and a self-healing cutting mat will let you custom-cut as needed.

Dan

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I got such cutting done several times, with a good result, just with a slightly rough edge on one side. You need a blade to cut metal, and do it slowly. The paper needs to be rolled up prettty tight, the outer round may get a rougher edge. Some Epson larger format printers just do borderless printing on papers with particular widths - e.g. 16" but not 17" , so I got one inch off that way, or cutting 24" to 2x12" , A4 is just 3mm shorter than 12" so there was no loss for that format.

 

[Dan Yeager]

Well, I can see that cutting with a metal blade could work - I've done such on rolls of Kraft and wrapping paper. Or I should say partial rolls, because I still imagine registration problems because of cut capacity (thickness) on the usual table saw. I foretell, with a slow pass, fine teeth, and thick paper, smoke and char.

Could work, if you can find a shop with the equipment to try it for you. And you could always use the straightedge to trim off any damage. See, I'm trying to not be a perfect naysayer about this - good luck and please let us hear how it works out. Dan

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I know of 2 companies in Germany selling large format roll paper, they offer cutting those rolls for 5€ per cut. And I have a private backup.

 

[Dan Yeager]

Great. Dan

 

[martin0reg]

...
I once used a fine toothed hand hacksaw to cut a 61 cm gloss roll in half clamped in a wood vice with a piece of wood for a straight guide, a print shop guillotine will also work..

At my first attempt doing this at home I used the same... and some more knives with teeth found in the kitchen. It took hours to do this but the result was better than I expected.

I can't recommend ii for more than one or two rolls, because it's too much effort and time.
Now I got a motor-"sabre saw" - but didn't tried it on paper rolls yet.
@The Hat
Do you really think a guillotine cutter can do this? Ever seen this?
I don't dare to do this, even with a big motorized guillotine at my work, because I'm worrying about a squeezed roll or, worse, a damaged guillotine--

 

[The Hat]

Do you really think a guillotine cutter can do this? Ever seen this?

@martin0reg, Yes, I have, but I couldn’t fit the roll under the guillotine clamp in the place where I last worked, so I was forced to improvise and cut it by hand with much the same results as you got..

P.S. No its won't damage the guillotine blade, but you do have to stack some paper inside the core to stop it collapsing from the clamp pressure...