HFS (R) Heavy Duty Guillotine Paper Cutter -12'' (12'' Paper Cutter)

It was hard to find review that showed the features. I did find a horrible YouTube video. Here is a list of features by someone who worked in the industry.- Base is solid. I’d say it’s medium duty.- Paper clamp (press) holds the paper as long as it is very tight. Glossy stock is a little more problematic. This is a feature most cheap cutters don’t have. If not, The paper will move due to the bevel of the blade, causing uneven cuts.- Cutting action is smooth and sturdier than expected.- Paper guide what is the least desirable feature. The cutter bed is ruled, however the guide should have clamps on both ends. We are probably going to add a movable backstop to keep the guide square to the blade. Our first project had trims (bleed) on all four sides and then was cut in half. The stock took some effort to keep square.- The assembly was simple, having the correct tools was a benefit. The instructions were reasonable but a good photograph is probably all you need.- Blade made 1000 cuts on 100 pound card stock. I didn’t see any deterioration in the performance thus far.- Safety lock a blade shield were acceptable.- Folding paper extension was sturdy and nice but a little short.I would keep your paper stacks to 3/4 of an inch to 1 inch. I am sure it will do more, but it seemed a little smoother with the smaller stacks. To get the most life out of the blade you might think about using a block against the side edge guide so that you use the blade opposite the handle. If you’re making lots of smaller sheets, the blade will wear more quickly against the edge guide.I would probably say that this cutter is best in class.

So I just bought this item. I may update this review but as of now I am giving my initial reaction. EVERYTHING looks great. But the problem is at the feet. Setup is hard.Not only did the feet come as if they were made from some 3D printer that doesn’t even mesh with the product. I had to force the feet to wedge on. This may be by design for obvious safety reasons.The real problem is that long black liner that runs across the base of the item. Its a plastic liner that has a gap designed to fit into the metal of the frame. WELL THE PLASTIC IS HARD AS ROCK and doesn’t budge to open up. It has to come off to place the feet on. But once the plastic pops off the frame good luck getting it back on.Don’t even bother if you BENT the plastic because now it’ll be stuck in a closed position.You have to wedge it open with a butter knife or something. Why ruin the first impression of perfect product presentation with terrible plastic feet that won’t even get on easily.The plastic looks like it has to be there to allow for balance. So in a sense, your 120$ plus product is depending heavily on this plastic liner foundation to do accurate cuts. If my product slants in anyway it may distort the cuts.I just need to cut regular index cards into the size of playing cards. I don’t need cuts to be diamond like. But YOU may if you are a teacher, professor, pamphlet designer or somebody else who can’t afford to have a centimeter off of your cut.The Pros:I haven’t even got to test the cut because of the bad base and it was frustrating enough to the point where I am now writing this review.The directions looked GREAT. But theres no warning about the TERRERRRRRRRRRRRRRIBLE PLASTIC FEET LINER THAT MUST ATTACH TO THE FEET.It is literally that bad.UPDATE:After the frustration I decided to remove the black plastic liner from the base and just installed the feet. It made carrying the frame a little painful on the fingers. That being said, I decided to see what the CUT was about. After all, I am here for the RESULTS not bells and whistles.I had to reinstall the clamp lever (like instructions with photo reference indicated) so that was a plus because I was warned about it in the manual. After that a placed a 100 stack of index cards into the machine and began lowering the clamp. WHAT DO YOU KNOW the clamp handle breaks off. I wound it up tight because the manual says to tighten the clamp for prevention of paper drifting.It would be very helpful to define what “tight” means. Ie. keep going until you cant anymore. Keep going til you hear a click. Keep going til the wheel spins 3 times without resistance. ETC. I am decent strong and twisted this thing until it about broke.I was able to fix the screw and maybe just maybe the error was on my part and how the reinstallation of the handle was installed.BUT enough of that. The CUT!I needed these cuts to be able to make quick index cards into a size that I can shuffle. The cut was PERFECT!It was difficult to see where the actual cut happens because the machine distorts your view of cut and theres no arrow saying “Cut starts here”.So I recommend doing a sample cut on the red line and from there you will see a cut line that obviously shows you where your cuts begin.Another downside is there is NO instruction on how to open the toolbox. At this point, after it wouldnt just slide open, I decided to forgo any sort of force and just found my own alan wrench to work with the handle. I don’t want to ruin another piece.The cuts are great at 100. But the parts seem a little fragile considering the sturdy frame. The plastic parts to clarify. I give it four stars because it got the job done and saved me tons of time. The blade itself is Definitely QUALITY. It started cutting the paper the second it touched it lightly.There’s lots of emphasis on safety and the guards and locks are there to help you. Thats a big plus. It closes with the blade down and the clamp acts as a wall on oneside while the protective see through plastic guards the other. If you follow the safety tips you should be ok. I am disappointed about the black liner and how easily the handle broke apart but was able to fix the handle.I feel like the cutting is what I got it for and it for that job nicely. Just a bummer that I feel i have to be super gentle on what seems like a sturdy piece of equipment.

The media could not be loaded.  I create handmade notepads for my small business, and this cutter was a complete game changer!! I’m so glad I spent the money to go ahead and get a heavy duty cutter like this one. My only complaint would be that I have to use a square to double check that my guard is exactly perpendicular. There were a few times where I cut A LOT of sheets just a little bit crooked.I highly recommend this product. Just know that you may also need to buy a square if you don’t already have one.

Bought this beast and exchanged it for another one due to a bent corner that prevented me from installing the rubber leg. The second one arrived and is bent in the exact same area. In both instances the shipping boxes and protective styrofoam were intact. There is obviously some manufacturing problem. They send five legs with it instead of four. I'm guessing this is because one of the rubber legs is commonly ruined during installation as happened with me. My husband just pounded the corner back into shape with a hammer and the rubber leg was installed. If this kind of issue does not bother you, this machine is heavy and sturdy and cuts nicely.

This cutter is amazing! I love the fact that it's all metal and super sturdy. I wish the instructions were a bit more detailed, but I was able to get it all together in about 20 minutes. I'm not sure why people are having trouble putting the feet on this thing, that was the easiest part, they just slide right in. It's so nice to have something to cut all my packaging and business cards at once so it doesn't take me forever and 10 days. A huge time saver!

Well, I was so scared to buy it for over a month after reading negative comments. On the 2nd picture you can see beautiful straight cut of more than 400 pages. The cut was so clean that it was shining like a flat surface but I took pictures with iPhone SE, the old one, with low quality cam. It is true indeed that it stained few pages on top as the blade was probably treated with some kind of grease before shipping for its protection and my fault I did not clean it. Although it didn't stain any when I tried with 4 Avon books. To the people saying that the cut isn't straight: I used what I had at the moment (nail polish lol), but I will get some mallet to tap the paper from the right side to push it nicely and evenly to the black bar on the left. As soon as I made sure the paper was perfectly fited in the cutter I then tight it with the clamp but again- make sure is clamped properly for the paper to not move while cutting otherwise it won't be a perfect cut. I still give 5 stars as for how I was scared to buy it I am very nicely surprised with how great it works. Well, again, so far so good. It will have a lot of work to do as I buy foreign books and it's cheaper and faster for me to get them when I buy eBooks but I print and bind them later for myself for easy reading and marking whatever I need. Previously it was taking me ages to cut 400 A4 leaves in half for printing. Now the only time-consuming thing is to fit the paper because the quillotine will cut it fast and with ease. Very happy with the decision I made and as I said, if you really need a cutter and you don't know which one to go for, give this one a go and try it. It probably might happen that some of the machines have some issues but that's life and can happen with anything you buy. As I previously thought I'd send it back as a faulty one if any problems and so you can with no need to cover the return postage costs (I believe so). Hope it could help someone to make the decision easier. Best regards x

I was a bit skeptical about this machine due to a lot of the reviews, but it has surprised me in a good way. You have to bear in mind that you can't ask a guillotine that costs £80/90 to cute the same way as a professional really expensive one would. So I did already expect that the cutting would be slightly off by like a mm. But the truth is that the cutting barely goes off and the quality of the blade is amazing. It cuts around 200/300 pages (depending on the thickness) incredibly well and accurately. I have used many guillotines which cost £20/30 and it has always been a loss of energy and money, however, this one really has made my life easier. You can say it has a nearly exact professional finish.I also read on some reviews that the blade comes dirty and you have to clean it beforehand otherwise it would leave residue and I did not clean it and it hasn't even left the tiniest bit of residue. I'm really happy about that as well.Finally, just add that I had seen some youtube videos where it shows that the machine should include some spare screws, and mine didn't so I contacted the seller and they replied really fast saying sorry because they apparently don't sell them anymore with those spare screws, so I was really happy with communication as well.Maybe it's just a case of luck, meaning that some machines could be in a better state than others, but the one I got is excellent. Thank you very much.

I bought this to cut the spines off of some old, damaged books, so I could scan them into my PC and index them. The cutter is reliable, with a razor sharp blade that will effortlessly cut through hundreds of sheets at a time.Sadly HFS don't sell replacement blades and cutting bars on Amazon UK, but those for the Chinese-made A4 guillotines work. They just take a few weeks to arrive on the 'slow boat'.Safety instructions in the manual could be better in regards to replacing the cutting bar. Use a suitable tool to push this into place, then lower the blade to hold it while you tighten the screws. Don't be tempted to use your fingers: the red block can catch and flip up - if it does, your finger will be forced into the blade.The blade is sharp, dangerous, and you should never put your fingers anywhere near it!To clean the blade safely - close it gently on the cutting bar. Dampen a cloth with cleaning alcohol or meths and use string or a rubber band to hold it on a wooden dowel or some kebab sticks. Use the tool to wipe the blade. Raise the blade very slightly then wipe once more with the tool. Cut a few scrap sheets of paper to get rid of the last bits of black oil.

I'd been wanting a decent guillotine for years - I'd had a succession of cheap and nasty ones, and I'd tried trimming with a knife. I bought this for a short project, and hoped it would last at least until the end of the project.First impressions: this thing is big, and heavy. It's much more solidly-built than I expected. Assembly was quick, and generally straightforward. Tools were in a box on the stopper labelled "Toolbox" - what could be simpler? (To be fair, it took a lot of fiddling to get the feet on - yes, those five funny curved things in the bag are feet. Yes, five.)First cut was so easy, I thought it hadn't cut at all - just "shoom", straight through. I saw another reviewer mention that the clamp and blade were oily and needed drying - yes, he was right. Here's a tip from me: close the blade when you do it. That blade is very sharp! With luck, the end of my finger might grow back.I had ten booklets to trim - three cuts each. In the event, I bled all over them, so I had to reprint and do it all again. That's sixty cuts. The last one was as good as the first, and I didn't need to turn the rubber anvil thing - it lasted just fine.Overall, I'm hugely impressed with this machine. It's amazing value for money. Five stars. (Just keep your fingers out of the way)

The guides on this thing are not square and all cuts are inconsistent. This unit is out nearly 1mm. When you cut straight down you’ll have 1mm more on the bottom than top. I am very disappointed with this paper cutter, which I purchased to trim books. It's clunky and difficult to make the stack of paper hold still while the blade is cutting it. The edge bar doesn't align at a perfect 90-degree angle to the machine. The paper is not cut straight. The item is very sturdy, the paper cutting number is incorrect. 500 sheets at one time is a lie. I can barely cut 30 sheets at a time. I liked being able to crank down & secure the proper position. There is some black grease like stuff that accumulates the more you use it. It simply doesn't cut straight. Initiated a return / refund but costs too much so I'm stuck with it. Seller clearly doesn't care their product is faulty and returns are very difficult.