The Framers Forum

Is it possible/practical to cut 3mm card on a manual cutter is a cmc required?grateful for your thoughts!

When you say a 3mm card I presume you mean a 3mm mountboard??
You can cut 3mm on a manual cutter or on a CMC but it would really depend on how frequently you need to cut it as to which is the best option for you.
Using a manual cutter you would be advised to use a different blade from your standard board, and you would need to make changes to calibration which some people find a pain in the neck to set up!
With a CMC the calibration is all pre set on the PC so switching between different thicknesses is very easy.
It would also depend on which model of manual cutter you use at the moment, do you know which it is?

Thick mountboard can be cut on a manual machine you just need to alter the blade depth and the start and end of cut settings. It is also advisable to use thicker single sided blades as they don't flex so much. If using a Keencut you need the Tech S 015 blades.

Needs a bit of practice on some scrap pieces first.

If you have a lot to do I would cut (or get them cut) on a CMC. It's quite long-winded doing that thick manually, but quite possible. Best to do it in three passes, increasing the depth each time.
Hate to contradict previous advice, but I would use the thinner 12 thou. blades.

this was one of the reasons we got our cmc, we wanted to use a thick board as standard and offer normal 1.4 if the price was too expensive.

It got to be a right old pita changing the settings all the time.

Keencut recommend the thicker Tech S 015 blades. It is possible with a hand cutter but you won't get as good a result as with a cmc. I bought a cmc because photographers had compared my work with a cmc and there was no comparison, so to keep the work and expand into that market i needed to get one.

I Know Border frames up near lockerby has one for sale its a very large Zund ,it takes jumbo board and has the special head to cut the thick board .

The Keencut Futura and the Fletcher-Terry 2100/2200 have interchangeable blade magazines which can be pre-set for different board thicknesses, very useful and you're probably only going to need two, but you'd still have to adjust the start & end of cut stops and do trial cuts on offcuts - I've made blades blunt doing that and then, after inserting a fresh blade, it's all different again.

But it can be done and done very well too, just a case of practice making perfect; knowing what adjustments are needed. One tip - do the cut in two strokes and make the first stroke a light score without the stops, starting before the start of cut and ending after the end of cut.

Britannia will do custom cut mounts in their mountboard. When I first started and only had a manual cutter I used them for their triple thick board (3.5mm) when I wanted a batch of thick mounts doing. As I remember the turnround time was fast and quality good.

This would probably only be economical for a reasonable number though.

On another thread I suggested a directory of forum members offering CMC mount cutting but nothing has happened so far.

Thanks everyone, this is really useful.

I use a Keencut Gold. I'd love a CMC but I'm trying to avoid large ticket items at the moment until the business gets going a bit more. I do know a local guy who will do CMC cut board for me at quite a reasonable price but obviously I'd prefer not to loose profit if I can.

This all came about because I every time I look at standard 1.4mm board now, with it's bright white core, I struggle to see it working in a frame design. Just looks flimsy and cheap to me and the bright white core seems wrong in so many instances. I guess it's just a matter of personal taste, but I'd love to be offering solid core 3mm board as standard. But it is a lot more expensive, I wonder whether customers will bite.

anyway, thanks again, I'm going to give it a go on the Keencut

I just found the instructions for cutting 3.4mm Britannia mountboard written by Pete Bingham in the front of the manual for my Keencut Ultimat Gold.

Attached as a .pdf hope it is useful.