Crosscutting a ROLL OF PAPER (on cardboard tube) on the table saw

[Jimmy Harris]

I'm a professional printer. So, this is the type of stuff I do for a living.

Yeah, you need a straight edge cutter. Any teeth will chew up an edge. We actually do this on purpose sometimes in what we call a "perfect bind", which is where we rough up the edges so that glue will adhere better to them for binding the pages in something like a magazine with a square back. Paper isn't wood, remember. Wood is just one of the ingredients in paper. So it can't be treated and processed like wood.

A slitter is how it would need to be done. However, I doubt you'd find a printer who has that capability AND would be willing to do that for you at a cost that would be reasonable. Cutting sheet paper is easy and most printers, binders, and paper suppliers will have a guillotine cutter for that. But paper on a roll has to be unrolled, slitted, and then rerolled, which is time consuming. A paper distributor might actually have the means and time to do that, as some of them buy larger stock and then cut them down to smaller stock on site. But I doubt most print shops would have the mans for that. At least none that I've ever seen own a slitter outside of something like an attachment to a folder. Then again, I work with sheetfed offset lithography, not on a web press. And a web press would be the environment where you might find something like this. Though web presses are getting harder to find, as there are fewer and fewer large distribution magazines these days. You might try a newspaper though. They're kind of the last web press printers around, for the most part. So that would probably be your best bet. If not, they might know someone. Though I suspicion most newspaper printers only ever print one size and type of paper, so they probably just order it how they need it.

You could perhaps build your own slitter. A couple of rollers and a disk blade in the center would do it. You'd have to tension the two rolls somehow and perhaps figure out a way to keep them aligned so the paper doesn't wander. But I have a better option if you ever run into this again...

Contact some print shops and ask them if they'd be interested in buying your large roll from you. Then use that money to buy your smaller rolls. Or ask them if they have some smaller rolls they'd be willing to swap out with you. Print shops always have a ton of paper left over from other jobs that's just sitting there wasting space, waiting to be used. And if someone does a lot of large format printing, they'll likely have a bunch of different rolls in various widths and paper types lying around. And wider paper is usually more valuable than narrow paper, as wider paper can be cut down.

[Tom Burgess]

It's difficult to give a firm answer without the photos, but I suspect your blade was dull and the paper fibers accumulated on the teeth, causing the smoke and ragged cut. Perhaps a higher blade setting so fewer teeth were in the cut at any one time would help.

Thanks, Lee. To your point, I cleaned built-up pitch from the 80-tooth blade, but did NOT sharpen it. I convinced myself that it felt "sharp enough" and probably caused the issues described. Another good call on your part.

I set the blade as high as possible (3-3/8" above the table surface) but per your remarks—if I'm reading you correctly—next time I'll try a 40-tooth combination blade that will be sharpened just prior to the cut.

[Tom Burgess]

I'm a professional printer. So, this is the type of stuff I do for a living.

Thanks a LOT for your in-depth and very helpful reply, Jimmy. I know a lot more now thanks to your efforts. Member Roger Wiegand in post #19 suggested trying to find a local source who might be willing to slit the paper for me. I found only one serious printer where I live. Left voicemail, but they didn't even return my call...so no dice. And there's a local newspaper, but I take your point regarding how they probably source their paper stock pre-sized, so will not trouble them with this.

I did a quick Google search to see what a slitter might look like. If I can find a way to SPIN THE PAPER ROLL on a length of pipe having an outside diameter slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the paper roll's cardboard tube, I wonder if pressing a stationary knife blade (such as a box cutter blade) against the spinning paper roll would cut successively deeper until it finally slit the cardboard tube and all. I'd have to rotate the paper tube by some mechanical means, and attach stops at both ends so as to keep the roll from shifting left or right while cutting... And the blade would have to be long enough to cut through the layers of paper AND the inner cardboard tube.

The cut I was able to achieve on the table saw is "good enough", but I'll look for ways to improve on that method. Per Lee's comments above, perhaps simply using a truly sharp blade, and one with half as many teeth (larger, deeper gullets) will resolve the bogging down, rough cut and smoking issues.

[Tom Burgess]

CHECK THIS OUT!

It's not wide enough, but is very much what I tried to describe in my post above. WOW!

26" Foil Paper Cutter Slitter Hot Stamping Roll Cutting Machine

View the video. That's very much what I had in mind.

[jim gossage]

I did a quick Google search to see what a slitter might look like. If I can find a way to SPIN THE PAPER ROLL on a length of pipe having an outside diameter slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the paper roll's cardboard tube, I wonder if pressing a stationary knife blade (such as a box cutter blade) against the spinning paper roll would cut successively deeper until it finally slit the cardboard tube and all. I'd have to rotate the paper tube by some mechanical means, and attach stops at both ends so as to keep the roll from shifting left or right while cutting... And the blade would have to be long enough to cut through the layers of paper AND the inner cardboard tube.

Fascinating discussion. The "spin the roll and cut with a knife" plan might work. Today I did that on a much smaller scale. I wanted to slice my roll of 1" painters tape into 1/3" strips. I clamped a boxcutter blade to my workbench with a 1/3" shim between the blade and bench. Then I just slowly turned the roll with pressure against the blade. Then flipped the roll and did the other side. Voila, a roll of three 1/3" tape strips. But I did not cut all the way through the cardboard core. Not sure how you would turn your 48" roll (a big lathe?) but it seems doable at least in theory. You would also need a longer and perhaps sturdier blade.

[Tom Burgess]

Fascinating discussion. The "spin the roll and cut with a knife" plan might work. Today I did that on a much smaller scale. I wanted to slice my roll of 1" painters tape into 1/3" strips. I clamped a boxcutter blade to my workbench with a 1/3" shim between the blade and bench. Then I just slowly turned the roll with pressure against the blade. Then flipped the roll and did the other side. Voila, a roll of three 1/3" tape strips. But I did not cut all the way through the cardboard core. Not sure how you would turn your 48" roll (a big lathe?) but it seems doable at least in theory. You would also need a longer and perhaps sturdier blade.

Thank you, Jim, for relating real-world experience. A great simple solution, and I appreciate your ideas on how to accomplish cutting a larger roll. See my post #34 just prior to yours. It shows a hand-cranked roll spinner, with the blade fixable at any position along a shaft the runs parallel to the spinning roll. Check out the video there, if interested. I hope to achieve a satisfactory cut at the table saw by employing a truly sharp 40-tooth combination blade (thank you, Lee Shierer) and by supporting the paper roll at the center / cut line (thank you, Jerry Bruette, post #29). If that doesn't "cut it" I might make something similar to the tool referenced in my post #34, but longer to accommodate the 48inch+ roll.