Advise needed on glass/acrylic & cutters.

[shogunswb]

Many many moons ago I worked in a picture framing shop & although it wasn't my main job I did a bit of cutting, assembling & mounting when I wasn't doing anything else & now we are looking to add picture framing to out poster & canvas printing business when we get a bit more room.
From what I can see things haven't really changed that much but our business is mainly online so most of the frames are going to be couriered which means glass is pretty much out of the question so will need to use some sort of acrylic I guess.
Has anyone got any suggestions on a particular product or are that all pretty much the same?
Also I wouldn't mind some advise on multi cutters similar to the wall mount Keencut 5000. Ideally it would be able to cut glass, acrylic, mount board & hardboard.
Is Keencut the one to go for or are there alternatives?
Thanks in advance.

[Chris_h]

I send about ten glass frames out a week and a lot of these are A2 or A3 prints that have been framed. I haven't had one breakage in three years now. I just pack mine with bubble wrap and then two bits of mdf taped together.

[shogunswb]

I was thinking of something similar but we tend to specialise in panoramics. The smaller ones would be ok but the larger ones say 800mm & above I can't think on how to stop them flexing unless they are shipped in a rigid box which makes cost an issue.
Just out of interest which courier do you use?

[prospero]

You can knock up wooden shipping boxes relatively cheaply. Get some rough sawn 'constructional' wood. Mitre it and underpin it into a frame and screw MDF to each side. It should only cost a quid or two for a medium-sized box. But you can be pretty sure the picture is going to arrive in one piece. Did a biggy a few weeks ago about 5ft x4 and 4" wide. Quick to do. Wrap up the picture and stuff in a bit of padding so it doesn't rattle around. They are re-useable too.

[shogunswb]

Sounds like a plan, I must admit I wasn't really that keen on acrylic anyway.
Any advise with cutters?

[prospero]

Two ways with acrylic. The simplest is to score it with a knife and snap it. Similar the glass. That's all the Keencut does. It won't go all the way though. The advantage is that it makes the scoring foolproof. By hand you can easily go off the line and although unlike glass you can score repeatedly you can end up with a dog's dinner of an edge. It is easier to do that glass as it won't veer off the cut. Takes a bit of practice and confidence like everything else.....

The other way is with a saw. Some folks do it with a table saw - think you need the right blade fitted. But that means lots of room to house a table saw with plenty of support around for the floppy sheets. You would also need a big = expensive saw. A saw cut doesn't have a nice clean edge like a scored'n'snapped one.