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Rant: The bookbinder I met at a flea market in Portland saved me $200 on board shears
I was at the Portland flea market two Saturdays ago and got talking to an older bookbinder named Ray who had a booth full of old tools. I mentioned I was about to buy a $260 board shear from a supply site, and he just laughed and told me to check estate sales for old paper guillotines instead. He said he picked up his 30 inch Challenge guillotine for $45 at an estate sale in Beaverton five years ago and it still cuts board like butter. I found one on Craigslist in Gresham for $60 the next day, spent another $25 on a new blade, and it works great for 1/8 inch Davey board. The only catch is you need to make a jig for cutting small pieces because the clamp doesn't hold anything under 3 inches. What do you all use for trimming small board pieces without crushing the edges?
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oliver26d ago
That line about Ray laughing at the supply site price is the whole thing in a nutshell, because there's an old guy somewhere who already solved your problem for a tenth of the cost. It happens with tools, cars, cooking, you name it, and the info is usually sitting in some retired guy's garage instead of on a website with free shipping and a 40% markup. For small board pieces, skip the clamp and use a sharp utility knife against a metal straightedge on a cutting mat, scoring a few passes instead of trying to cut through in one go.
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