Rotating Cutting Mat

[Thomas Meek]

To help in positioning small paper parts for cutting. This is not a new idea; there are several on the market but they all seem too large for my purposes. I think they are used for quilting and other fabric based crafts in association with rotary cutters.

The base is about 8 inches square (200mm) and the rotating table (blue) is about 4 1/2 inches (110mm).

The rotating table sits on a "lazy Susan" bearing and was originally intended to sit flush with the surface of the base but I miscalculated the thicknesses and anyhow it doesn't seem to hurt that it sits about 3mm higher.

If I were to build another I would make it so that access to the positioning of the bearing and the rotating table mounting screws is easier. As it is, access to the bearing is only through the 1/2 inch (12mm) hole in the back of the base.

Getting everything concentric was a chore, as the "lazy Susan" bearing has no center and I had to find the centers from the edge of the disc; not the easy way! I learned that regular erasers do not work very well on plywood.

But now it's together, it seems to work very well, even better than I had hoped. Cutting circles freehand is a joy, and scoring difficult curves is much, much easier.

It also helps with straight lines, as turning the work is very easy now. When I first tried it out, my fingers said "Oh, Boy! This is what we like!"

Make no mistake, this is still freehand cutting and still hard to do, but it is much more comfortable with the rotating table than without.

The base is a piece of 5/8 inch (15mm) plywood and the rotating table is 1/4 inch (6mm) ply. Both from scrap at work. (I only keep working there for the insurance and the building materials.)

The "lazy Susan" bearing and mounting screws came from the local hardware store and the circle of self healing mat came from our local St Vincent de Paul thrift store where I found a mat 24'x36" very clean for $1.00 (You gotta love those thrift stores!)

Well, I've been neglecting my paper models for too long while I built this thing and I will get back to them. If I am still using the rotating cutting mat after six months I will consider it a success.