Rotary cutter problem
12-07-2013, 07:57 AM
#31
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Desert Southwest
Posts: 1,314
Bad Rotary blades
PLEASE Lainey, you are a talented quilter and you need to get up of the floor to do your cutting. I can not picture you safely cutting with a rotary blade on the floor. Safety first. If you haven't a table, then find an old bookcase and make yourself a table top. Guys at Home Depot love to help women when we walk into the lumber section. Tell them what you want and they will get everything you need. You have to always think safety first whenever you have a rotary cutter in you hand. Be safe!!
12-07-2013, 08:07 AM
#32
Power Poster
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Front row
Posts: 14,646
I have no idea why your blades are getting ruined so fast. You seemed to have tried everything. If you are cutting on the floor, it may be too much pressure on the cutter. I have had some cotton fabric that would not cut, the blade would just glide over it. Beats all! but it does happen, to me anyway.
12-07-2013, 08:31 AM
#33
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Southern California
Posts: 6,254
I agree with nicking the blade on a ruler, it is very easy to do this. That was my first thought is that the ruler is nicked in a certain spot and all your blades are catching on it and getting damaged.
12-07-2013, 08:31 AM
#34
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Missouri
Posts: 2,485
Lainey I would use the back side of the mat if you have had it on the floor, it is sure to have picked some little bit of sand or dust which would do more damage. Try turning it end for end and see if the other end is better. As and someone else mention get the mat on a table so you have more control and in the right position to make a safe cut.
12-07-2013, 09:05 AM
#35
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 109
I AM GOING TO MY LQS this afternoon to get to the bottom of this! I am taking my cutter, mat, old nicked blades, all my fabric where I got the nicks - they are experienced and hopefully they can figure it out.
I'll get back with results, and thank you all for so many helpful ideas...
Lainey
I'll get back with results, and thank you all for so many helpful ideas...
Lainey
12-07-2013, 09:47 AM
#36
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Mooresville, NC
Posts: 511
Just my two cents, but it certainly sounds like it's your rotary cutter. I would take the blade out and wipe the inside out really well. You may have picked up some grit that is stuck to the oily residue left by the blade. And if you have dropped the handle often, perhaps the safety is not quite here it should be and could be causing the problem. Good luck and let us know what you find out.
12-07-2013, 09:54 AM
#37
Power Poster
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Corpus Christi, Tx.
Posts: 16,105
Also try on of those magic erasers. Dampen it like you're going to use it normally. Run that onto your mat. If there is any kind of the smallest debris, it will catch and tear the eraser. All it takes is the smallest piece of metal to put a knick on those blades. When I get new blades and when I buy any shears, I get a magnifying glass to see if there is a knick. Also a pair of knee highs will catch on a piece of debris. Just run it across your mat.
what? you cut on the floor? actually directly on the floor or on your cutting mat?????????? Whew, mat. good . but a nick on the mat may be the problem.what brand mat? try cleaning it. use one of those nylon kitchen round scrubbies.http://www.olfa.com/CustomerServiceGuarantee.aspx
12-07-2013, 01:10 PM
#40
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 4,783
Sometimes my mat gets dried out and hard in spots, and the cutting blade just slips over that spot without cutting. Mats sometimes need soaked in water overnight to rehydrate. This problem is an obvious one, though, because it's always the same spot on the mat.
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