EK tools Scissor Pro Circle Cutter, New Package

I did a poor man's gold foil & die cut effect on my wedding invites by applying 1 mil vinyl over 14pt uncoated cover stock. If that's not heavy duty use, I don't know what is. This circle cutter had zero problem cutting through that.I read other review of products where the blade drifted a little between the start and end of a cut, which made for non uniform circles that didn't fall cleanly away. After about a hundred cuts, not once did I run into that problem.After a while, I could definitely tell the blade was starting to dull down so I'd have to make a couple extra passes and press down harder. It was a little more work by that point, but the cuts always came out perfect. This thing is consistent, and the reason is that its design is simple. There are no lock nuts to come loose, no multi-part crank handles.I actually found that I wasn't using the crosshair at all. Instead, I'd lay the cutter down and spin it around to check how the socket I wanted to use lined up with other elements I wanted the circle to register to.I spent WAY more time than any rational person ought spend hunting for the perfect circle cutter but my time and efforts paid off. Spare yourself the hassle. Stop looking and get this one.

Using half your garage as a semi-outdoor "sports man cave" is very common, in North Texas. Most people use neon light fixtures for the decor, but a high-tech neighbor wanted to be unique and use gobos and a gobos projector. The gobos get printed onto transparent acetate with using an inkjet printer, and cutting them out has to be very exact in order for them to display properly centered in the gobos projector.He printed 180 gobos (60 on 3 pages), because his wife/kids wanted the gobos to be labels for all kinds of things, not just beer and hard liquor :-) Each gobos has a 1" dotted-line circle showing where the cut HAS TO BE. We started by using an x-acto knife to cut them out, which worked but was very time-consuming and required both a keen eye and very steady hand. We then purchased the EK tools Scissor Pro and added X,Y alignment lines outside the dotted-line circles. At first we were skeptical that the tool wouldn't work with transparent acetate, but to our surprise it not only worked, it cut exactly on the dotted-line...every time!!

The media could not be loaded. This tool did exactly what it said it would. As I expected from other product reviews it is a bit big so if you are looking to cut smaller circles it can be difficult if you dont have a large surface case to work with.As a crafter I have multiple cutting tools and was just looking for another that might make cutting large quaties of circles easier without having to completely readjust my set up before cutting the next circle.I recommend a foam style base for this. Used with a lot of other crafting tracing tools. It creates a clean cut circle and doesnt ruffle the edges. I tried with a sturdier cutting mat as well and, while this worked, I felt the blade had less give with the material.So overall, I reccomend as lone as you have a proper crafting base underneath to ease the cutting.

On first impression, this tool seemed incredibly easy to use, but its cuts were not nearly as clean as I expected. On 80lb cardstock, it tended to produce a rough edge, with a tail or burr where the blade cut a slightly different path on its return pass. This happened consistently. It might be an issue with too much tolerance in the rotation of the circular guide mechanism, or perhaps a shift in the blade's cutting angle. To keep a steady angle, it's probably essential to bear down firmly while cutting, so that the shuttle remains fully seated in its marker position and the blade is fully unsheathed.This was my second circle cutter; my first was an OLFA compass (CMP-1). Although the compass produced a clean edge and a consistent path, aligning it to the center of a print design was nearly impossible. This is where the Circle Scissor Pro excels. Alignment is made easy thanks to perpendicular axes printed onto the transparent cutting guide. Just align these to a centerpoint or corresponding axes on your print design, and you're ready to go. The guide should keep your material firmly in place as you cut; if there's any doubt, just tape down a few corners beforehand.The rough edges are a problem, though, and I'm currently wondering what I can do to fix this. Specifically, I wonder if EKTools has ever considered including a small glass cutting mat with this? The Circle Scissor Pro is a very bulky tool in terms of its storage profile, and yet there's plenty of unused room within its packaging. Adding a suitable cutting mat might help ensure better results from the start. Glass seems to be recommended; a self-healing mat (what I've been using) may not be the best choice for this type of blade setup.UPDATE: I've not been able to fully test this yet, but a YouTube clip suggested using glass from a certificate frame—available cheaply at most dollar stores—as a homemade cutting mat. I think this is a great idea! Typical size is 8.5" x 11", which is large enough for the Circle Scissor Pro. (Poster frames as large as 11" x 14" can also be found.) Hardware stores are another resource for glass cut to a custom size. Note that a branded cutting mat will generally be made of tempered glass, which is considered safer than standard glass, but either would seem to be fine as a cutting surface.