Thinnerline Circle Cutter review

[ebf2k]

I read in another thread here about the Thinnerline Circle Cutter and it looked really cool, so I had to buy one and try it. Here are my results.


This is what arrived, the Circle Cutter, and the Center Locator. These now come together in a combo. I also got a pack of 30 degree blades.





These are the Circle cutter parts: The cutter arm and lock, the 60 degree blade, two calibration stickers, and the main cutter disk.

[ebf2k]

Assembly: Unscrew the lock on the arm
put it into the circle cutter disc, and screw the lock back on.
Pretty easy!

[ebf2k]

Put the blade in
turn it back over and it's ready to cut.

[ebf2k]

Cut my first circle!



You can see from the (blurry) photo there was a little burr where I started the cut. The blade pressure was too strong, so I adjsuted it.


Made another cut I will use for calibrating.

[ebf2k]

To calibrate measure the diameter of the circle you cut out. The recommend you use calipers but I only have a ruler and the Mk.I Eyeball. I measured the circle at 22.5 MM


So I find 22.5MM on the ruler on the cutter arm
and apply the calibrating sticker with the tip pointing to 22.5 on the scale.


*NOTE* If you have a sharper eye than I did at the time, you will see I have the sticker pointing to 23.5mm on the scale! Oops! I will soon find out how this will affect my cuts!

[ebf2k]

The manufacture claims you can also cut out concentric rings. To do that we will need the center locator.
It comes in two parts, the "L" bracket and the locator itself with the bullseye on it.
The "L" bracket has a silicone bottom and is pretty grippy.

[ebf2k]

Actually we just need the L bracket to make rings. I'll come back and use the bullseye next.


Put the cutter in the bracket and make the first cut.
Now the bottom is pretty grippy, but to be extra sure I clamped the bracket down gently to secure it well


I've also moved the blade out to make the bigger concentric cut. You will have to pick the cutter up off the paper to do this, so the L bracket is a must.

[ebf2k]

Making the outer cut:
Yes it worked! We have a paper donut!

[ebf2k]

But I didn't buy this just to cut out random circles on blank paper, I want to cut out real parts from a kit!


I took some scrap parts from an old kit and found some circles to try.

Let's find the center of one of the parts we want to cut out; this engine part from an x-wing.


Note you really need to be right above the part and look straight down. Also make sure the bullseye rings are on the bottom side of the locator to cut down on the parallax.

Now that I've got it centered, use the L bracket and clamp it down. Also if the bracket is not holding the paper you are cutting down, it wouldn't hurt to temporarily tape it to your cutting mat.

[ebf2k]

Now I thought I would be clever and take the measured diameter of the part and set the blade to that on the scale.



Hmm, between the inaccuracy of my ruler/Mk.I eyeball instrument combo and my messed up calibration, it doesn't look quite right.





But this is my first attempt so lets see how it goes.