Dahle 533 Professional Guillotine Paper Trimmer - 13-3/8" Cutting Length, 15 Sheet Capacity, Self-Sharpening Blade, Manual Clamp - German Engineered Office & Crafting Tool for Documents, Photos, and Scrapbooking

Very sturdy and cuts quite well. I’m generally cutting very thin sheets of resin, so it’s not 100% precise because of the thickness, but with paper it’s perfect.I love Dahle cutters. I also have the rotary which is excellent.Their lack of enough grid lines running up and down the unit forces me to draw my own. It's a pain I am looking into adding some kind of grid mat if I can find one thin enough.. Or I may just print my own.. In my field being off a mm can ruin what I am doing...If it had a grid throughout like the Exacto it would be perfectI wish I could give this 5 stars but I cannot.First, the details.The cutter is solid and works as advertised and while I have not had the opportunity to subject it to the "Test of Time", it certainly appears to be capable and worthy of the title Durable.This model is defined as a 12 inch paper cutter, HOWEVER, it should be noted that the cutting table is NOT 12 inches wide horizontally. It IS 13 3/8 inches wide vertically from guide to guide.Horizontally it is 11 inches wide total.You can cut 12x12 inch paper, however you cannot use the moveable guide on paper wider than 9 1/2 inches.The moveable guide with red button lock is 1 3/8 inches wide and can only be employed at a position that is at the end of the horizontal guide and no further.I cut 12x12 paper in my current projects and must remove the moveable cutting guide with red button lock completely.Removal and replacement of the moveable guide is extremely quick and easy without any tools. (it is designed to be removed)IF.... you require the cutting of paper in excess of 9 1/2 inches WITH use of the moveable guide, this is Not the model you should purchase.Without use of the moveable guide it will cut 12x12 and 13x19 paper.The plastic shield on the right appears to be a finger saver or safety device (and it is) but it is much more than that.The shield is a finger operated spring loaded paper clamp you simply press down upon when cutting.This is a Very Important and useful feature.When a paper cutter begins its cut, it pulls the paper towards the cutting edges and "can" cause the paper to slip.This shield / clamp, stops this from happening.You line up your cut and press down on the shield / clamp and the paper stays put without trimming your fingernails or fingers.Sadly this also creates an unfortunate side-effect that is only a tiny annoyance.You must look down over the shield (from right to left) to line up "where" the cut is to be made. (a Very Minor inconvenience)The cutter blade is sturdy and is Not spring loaded.The cutter blade is held in place or in the up position by friction alone.This WILL require periodic tightening of the Nut / Bolt pivot as described in the owner's manual. (good news is.... there is no spring to eventually break)So WHY did I not give this cutter 5 stars????I cannot give this cutter 5 stars because the guides are slightly Out of Square with the cutter blade.This "slightly" out of square is roughly 1/64 of an inch.This out of square IS the product of the guides being mounted by rivets.Thing is.... the one YOU buy may be perfectly In Square and stands a 90% chance of being perfectly square.This tiny out of square is the production tolerance created by the riveting of the guides instead of machining the guides.You will not experience any truly substantial out of square problems but using this cutter to place objects into space with precise tolerances is out of the question.I do NOT use this cutter to cut multiple sheets at once.This entire review is based upon single sheet use ONLY.Bottom line....It is well built and and does a very good job for all but the most precise demands.Received product in its original box with a label slapped on the outside, this was disappointing for the money I paid for it. Box was beat up and I almost returned it but didn’t want to waste the resources used to ship it to me if it wasn’t broken…Bought as an alternative to the Tonic brand guillotine trimmer since it is unavailable.Item was intact with a lightweight metal cutting surface/base which was nice because I expected plastic. Using to exclusively cut mat/mounting board. Good for this mid to heavy weight paper, will reassess the longer I have it.Blade intact and sturdy with an adjustment bolt.Took off one star for poor packing for shipment.We bought this for our school. At 15 pages it starts to grab the papers and they slide and the cut starts to angle. I'd say 10 pages is a more realistic for smooth operating. But we're a small school and I didn't buy this because of how many pages I could cut at once. I wanted clean, precise and a longer than 11" cutting range. So far when I'm quartering 5 pages, or triming 16" posters, I love the results. But that's not why this is getting five stars. I'm giving it 5 stars because of the people behind the product. Our safety guard came with a fastening hook snapped off-- thus it wouldn't stay connected. When I called the number on the user manual I was shocked that a person answered. It wasn't some automated phone tree. Amy was cordiale and when I explained what happend, she took our order number and in two minutes had another guard rail shipped out to us. These days everything is automated and impersonal and it takes 20 steps to find a person who can help. Apparently not with Dahle. Money well spent.Wish the deck was laid out better so that the markings were easier to see and use. Also more markings would be helpful. Will have to devise my own method to mark projects so that all marking are accurate and the cuts are the the same when it counts. The quality of materials appears to be superior to other cutters I have used and for the most part I have been extremely satisfied with this product, ~jHandles large papers, photo mats, and speciality papers like pergamenta.Before I bought this I only had a little Wal-mart paper cutter. This is an awesome upgrade. The knife is accurate and sharp, it's easy to handle, and most of all, it seems to line up fairly well with all the angles. The movable slider feels secure and doesn't wobble; cuts are quick, accurate and repeatable, and you get fairly good 90-degree angles. It's a bit bulky, but I love it. For professional situations there will always be room to grow, but for home use and helping my wife, who is a 1st-grade school teacher and need lots of stuff cut, it's a beauty.I have been using a different brand of cutter for many years however it was starting to wear out through heavy use and was difficult to find online. At this price I expected a quality heavy duty item that would outlast my needs, but sadly it didn't. It appeared very sturdy, heavy and well made with durable finish yet lacked measurements and guidelines that almost all cheaper cutters were adorned with. (6"x9" or equivalent metric) The heavy blade failed to cut even 1 sheet of 400gsm card properly leaving a squashed top with a burred bottom edge and had a tendency to pull the card away from the butted stop preventing a square 90degree cut. Item returned for a refund.Apparently, the blade works itself loose in use....to replace my old light box? This product is excellent in quality and value!Top quality piece of equipment. You need a bit of a solid push to cut 25 sheets but it can be done. Very happy with tbis purchase.Compact and Robust.