Review on 📐 Dahle 508 Personal Rotary Trimmer: 18-Inch Cut Length, Self-Sharpening Blade, 5-Sheet Capacity - German Engineered Paper Cutter by Jessica Lewis

My old guillotine paper cutter, over 30 years old, is finally showing its age and the cuts are less accurate. They had a large (48 inch cutting length) disc cutter/trimmer in my office and I liked the performance of the rotary cutter so I decided to look for a personal sized rotary cutter/trimmer for home use. After checking out the few I settled on the Dahle 507, mainly because of the guide the cutting block slides on. The rail supports both the lateral and vertical position of the blade, so I only have to use a forward/backward movement and no vertical pressure, to make the cut. Dahle's rotating blade makes excellent straight, clean cuts (compared to a guillotine cutter, which tends to pull the paper sideways as it cuts, resulting in jagged cut lines). Some Cons --- With the Auto Clamp Strip on top of the bed knife (metal cutting edge), the little gray cup next to it and the guide over the blade, it is difficult to visually and accurately locate the cut marks/cut lines to align with the cutting edge. I ended up attaching a small strip of paper in a contrasting color to the tray to better define the crop edge and align the crop marks with the crop edge (see photo). As shipped, the scale bars were not square at either end. to the cutting edge. Because the balance beams are simply held from below with three screws, they are easy to adjust and align with the cutting edge. To line it up accurately you will also need to remove the guide (pull out the red clip at the end of the guide) and the plastic automatic clamping bar so you can place the square edge against the cutting edge and then set the scale(s). The metal base is only about 6.5 inches wide, which is likely to fit most small projects. However, I'm dealing with larger paper (usually 11" x 17"), so the 6.5" width is a limitation. To cope with this, I have an extension from a ½" piece board made with a ¼ inch strip as a backing, to keep it on the edge of the base. I then added my own paper guide marks (measured from the cutting edge) for the specific cuts I needed. Overall I am very satisfied with the Dahle 507. I was drawn to the affordable price and the crisp, straight cuts. The size and light weight make it easy to store.