Cutting a Rotary Mat down to a smaller size
 

Has anyone tried to cut one of the thicker, professional rotary cutting mats to a smaller size? I like the Alvin Professional mats that are almost 1/4" thick. I have a piece furniture I plan to use for my cutting space that is about 31"x16" so I want to cut about 2" off of the side of a 24"x18" mat. My husband has a table saw, but I'm not sure if that would leave a ragged edge. Any ideas?

I would think you could cut it pretty easily with real tools. I would probably put a line of blue tape on it, just like you do when you cut through finish surfaces and cut through that,

I know when I have mats break (and they aren't the type you have) sometimes the edges remain rather sharp and sometimes you can get some nasty sliver pieces break off. Again, you can tape that over for a smooth edge. Maybe lightly sand?

But for many years I kept a terrible awful coffee table of fake wood and glass inserts because it was just the exactly perfect size to fit an Olfa mat and there was just enough lip of fake wood left to keep the mat in place plus it was a good height so although my posture was terrible I could sit on the couch and lean over and do my cutting relatively easily.,,

Plastics, acrylics often sort of melt when cut with a rotary saw and may give off fumes or melt a bit on the blade. You might have to buy your husband a new saw blade.

My dear hubby has cut one of my mats that I had ruined by sitting my laptop on. It was a QUILTERS SELECT MAT he used his bandsaw. Worked perfect.

Oh yes, there are no sharp edges.

I used a jigsaw to trim mine down to a size that fit on a table top, then used a sharp knife to trim off the bits of melted mat. It didn't get on the saw blade. I put the cut edge on the backside of the table.

I used one of the old paper cutting big handle blade type thing.

another option to cutting mat
 

Another way to do it could be to cut a piece of plywood the size of your mat, plus an inch or so extra. Then attach some aluminum right angle pieces along the back and on one side (I put on the left as I am right handed) with the "flat side" facing the mat. This holds the mat in place and also gives a nice place to rest your ruler when you are cutting strips.

I ran mine through the table saw with no trouble, but don't know what blade my husband put on it.

I took two 36x36 mats and cut them in half so I could put them on the back side of my LA table. That makes a great cutting area for when I need to trim up a quilt after quilting, since it's 12' of cutting length.

Years ago I set my hot iron on my fiskars cutting mat. It ruined a piece in the middle. I took a utility knife with a metal ruler and cut that section out. I had an old sink cut out I used it to lay the mat on. I kept going back cutting until it was cut through. I had two smaller cutting mats and used them for a long time.