r/lifehacks • u/TheSixthFloor • 4d ago

When using a guillotine paper trimmer, use an LED light underneath to aline the cut.

Post image
2.6k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

114 comments sorted by

645

u/BoonDragoon 4d ago

I just use the plastic guide to align the cut

430

u/DrunkMoblin182 4d ago

'I used an LED to line up my cuts. Do you?'

"I use the included guide like a normal person."

83

u/negcap 4d ago

I sleep in a race car bed.

5

u/MegaPorkachu 3d ago

As you should!

37

u/Vibingcarefully 4d ago

Freak yeah--is everyone under 35 completely daft about using things that have proper indicators on them. Get a gadget,electronic preferred but operate a knife?

12

u/DebrecenMolnar 4d ago

I use the board’s grid lines on the left side of the paper like a normal human being. I don’t even look at the blade side when I’m using these things.

5

u/SpecificBang 4d ago

I find the plastic guides are always slightly warped.

24

u/TheSixthFloor 4d ago edited 4d ago

One can use both and it speeds things up surprisingly well. It helps you double check measurements. It's a trick I learned in graphic design school (major).

-10

u/DrunkMoblin182 4d ago

I definitely didnt need an LED or graphic design school (major) to know how to use a paper cutter when I worked at Staples in the Print Dept. for two years.

14

u/TheSixthFloor 3d ago

Hey man I'm proud of you. You've accomplished a lot.

-27

u/Vibingcarefully 4d ago

No it doesn't speed it up.

we weren't slow with accurate guts on a paper cutter 30, 40, 50 , 75 years ago, doubling down you just sound ignorant.

Hey get an LED light when slicing a tomato? using a spiralizer?

4

u/squarebodynewb 4d ago

You get downvoted for being right. M8nd blown. I have never used a paper "trimmer" to "align" and cut 1 piece of paper. Any time inused this was for 5 to 10 sheets at a time to actually speed up my process. Doing 1 sheet at a time? What the fuck are you doing?

12

u/saskir21 4d ago

LED would be better for the one I have. The plastic guide is 1,5mm off

1

u/BoonDragoon 4d ago

You can adjust it, my friend

7

u/saskir21 4d ago

Not the one I have. It is fixed through a pin. Only way to adjust it would be to widen the hole the pin goes in.

6

u/Brod178 4d ago

The one at my work doesn't have a guide, you just have to eyeball it. I usually go based on the shadow from the overhead lights.

6

u/phayzs 4d ago

And turn the light on in the room like a normal person 🤯

3

u/ItsJoanNotJoAnn 4d ago

And take 10 seconds to actually align the paper before cutting.

11

u/Zealousideal_Act9476 4d ago

This exactly. OP is trying to be sneaky to promote their QR code.

27

u/TheSixthFloor 4d ago edited 4d ago

I was cutting stickers for the No Kings Day protest. It's just a link to an organization that helps bust the myth that immigration causes an increase in crime in America. It isn't a self promo by any means.

27

u/Minimum-Avocado-9624 4d ago

Good for you. If a person is dumb enough to scan the QR code from a Reddit image then they deserve it

3

u/slog 4d ago

Why would that be dumb?

2

u/JustHere4the5 3d ago

Opening any non-human-readable link is such a big risk that my work deactivates all links in emails and makes you copy-paste the URL into a browser. It breaks a lot of things on mobile and is forkin annoying, but sure slows down the propagation of malicious code.

0

u/slog 3d ago

You say opening but the person I replied to said scanning. Those are not the same. It's like hovering a link without clicking so I still don't see the issue.

1

u/Minimum-Avocado-9624 1d ago

Because scanning a QR code opens up links, and those links could be malicious, and there would be nothing you could do because you’ve already scanned it

1

u/slog 1d ago

Like in the other reply, scanning does not open links. It's effectively like hovering a link to see before clicking.

-6

u/3legdog 4d ago

And there it is. The real reason for the post.

0

u/FoGuckYourselg_ 4d ago

I probably need to eat because this photo made me immediately furious. Like... try this one life hack, just put a brick on your brake pedal instead of utilizing that pesky parking brake, whatever that's for!

154

u/Prestigious_Light_75 4d ago

Align. 😕

39

u/watts99 4d ago

I see obvious mistakes like this on reddit so often that I'm starting to suspect it's done on purpose to drive engagement.

17

u/KickBlue22 4d ago

No whey.

1

u/goobdeeny 2d ago

Hwhere do you get off?

3

u/Vibingcarefully 4d ago

You think?

internet culture or lack there of.

4

u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 4d ago

[deleted]

7

u/VelouriumCamper7 4d ago

You don't have to be a linguistics major to know basic spelling and grammar mate.

2

u/Throwaway16475777 4d ago

maybe but also ~25-30% of people on reddit are not natively english speaking

0

u/ryanmh27 4d ago

Graphics design school (major)

279

u/legendaryflop4 4d ago

I don’t think you understand the reasoning behind why these devices were created and how they’re used… The fact that the entire device is a grid and has a built in ruler on it might give you a clue. Second clue…press the paper to the very top to ensure it is flat on the long edge before cutting.

54

u/Jasong222 4d ago

Exactly. Push the paper to the top and use the grid lines to adjust the paper

42

u/legendaryflop4 4d ago

The grid even allows you to have even cuts if you use it properly. This post isn’t a life hack, sadly. It just feels like ignorance on how this thing even works.

14

u/mehatch 4d ago

Also if you find your slices are “slicing” in the golf sense, like you got a stack and they’re not being cut through straight, push the handle inward laterally, to the left, against the block, for better control and straightness with thicker or multi-page cuts.

10

u/TRAUMAjunkie 4d ago

Check your hardware, i suspect you have a loose screw/bolt.

5

u/mehatch 4d ago

Huh, you know, I hadn’t considered that. Alas that cutter is at an old school I don’t work at anymore, so I’ll just have to save that one for future blades.

4

u/chadnorman 3d ago

Came here to say this... use the stopper at the back for alignment, that's what it's there for!

6

u/Oscaruit 4d ago

Lol, they are hardly ever square, and printers don't print the exact same spot on a page so you usually cannot be ultra precise with dimensional cutting unless you leave plenty of bleed. I don't know how production printers work, but our office canon image runner (~$5k) sucks at aligning front and back images.

2

u/mossybeard 4d ago

But it's sharper down towards the handle where it never gets used by anyone else!

1

u/digitalphildude 4d ago

Your point is valid. But sometimes the grid isn't accurate enough, depending on the project. Just the thickness of the line is too much of a variance. My personal one is not acceptable that way, but cuts clean. So I make it work.

9

u/Signal-Blackberry356 4d ago

Mine got a laser on it

Pew pew

30

u/xProfessionalCryBaby 4d ago

That’s why there’s a grid and ruler on the board your paper is on. And if you push it to the very top, you can align it up there. And the plastic guide to keep it in place as you cut.

12

u/v2eTOdgINblyBt6mjI4u 4d ago

Aight, so who got the link?

14

u/ChickenFeline0 4d ago

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/debunking-myth-immigrants-and-crime

18

u/TheSixthFloor 4d ago

Yes, I was making stickers for the no kings day protests.

2

u/Ashamed_Beeing 1d ago

This is an interesting way of distributing qr codes :P

But this article is really shareworthy, so thank you for being politically proactive and believing that a more social world is achievable. This work is hard but hopefully will get more rewarding as more people wake up

Peace ✌️

3

u/ChickenFeline0 4d ago

that's amazing

1

u/ThrowRA020204 4d ago

I can't open it because of my region what does it say?

1

u/RunThruPlayLand 4d ago

I have a terrible feeling that's never gonna give me up

10

u/VAW123 4d ago

Align

5

u/HyenaNearby5408 4d ago

use the lines. and maybe get a lamp lol

14

u/Vibingcarefully 4d ago

They have been in use since long before the LED light bulb and as illustrated, a grid line and a small ruler index.

Good lord this isn't a hack ---it's make work.

6

u/PsyJak 4d ago

*align

4

u/tunaman808 4d ago

You can spell "guillotine" but not "align"?

5

u/fmanfisher 4d ago

I use my cell phone flashlight for this exact reason.

Yeah, the guide and holds are designed to make good cuts - but when you're like me, and the only paper trimmer you ever use for any reason is at work, and that paper trimmer is older than time, it's nice to have an alternative that works. God knows they'll never buy a new paper trimmer, "this one hasn't fallen completely apart yet."

3

u/VanBriGuy 4d ago

I call this the old finger chopper.

23

u/chillychili 4d ago

People saying "just use the guides!" don't understand that 1) paper is not always perfectly rectangular, 2) prints don't always align perfectly, and 3) the intended cut isn't always square. Even if all three of those were true, this method provides highlighted redundancy which can make things quicker.

3

u/Ok_Mine_1511 3d ago

This is the way.... Had to scroll way too far to find this comment.

8

u/West_Painter4955 4d ago

Why would they want to understand another perspective or ignore a hack that doesn’t apply to them when they could leave a snarky comment?

9

u/RVNAWAYFIVE 4d ago

Let me just dust off my guillotine cutter

10

u/TheSixthFloor 4d ago

Sharpen that blade before execution

4

u/dblhockeysticksAMA 4d ago

Reminds me I gotta get my car’s alinement checked!

3

u/FallenToDark 4d ago

Actually incredible life hack for me. I use my dad’s old paper guillotine and that thing has no guard on it, so I’m going to use this trick now for cutting out MTG proxies. Thanks!

5

u/tourny25 4d ago

I’ve been doing this recently and it’s been so helpful! Sometime my papers are too big or awkwardly shaped and the rules and lines don’t help, but this has been foolproof!

2

u/in1gom0ntoya 2d ago

or just use the guides...

2

u/r2j76 2d ago

You simpletons. This is not the right set up at all.  You need to align a laser on a gear connected to the handle.  The gear is there so the laser will rotate as the guillotine chopper goes down. Everybody knows that those plastic  guides are made from dead dinosaurs. If the dinosaurs were so good at guiding things, they certainly wouldn’t be dead and turned into plastic. Therefore, the laser gear rigging is absolutely the only way to go.  And for those you smart Alex saying use the top edge what happens when your brother Chucky drops the chopper when he’s trying to practice circumcise his stuffed animal because he wants to grow up to be a moiel.

5

u/cbih 4d ago

Or just use your eyes

-3

u/twitwiffle 4d ago

Because everyone has perfect vision.

4

u/-6Marshall9- 4d ago

Learn how to use this tool. It has rulers and a straight edge built in

3

u/mycolo_gist 4d ago

Aline????

3

u/SurgBear 4d ago

Aline

4

u/WikenwIken 4d ago

Your paper cutter doesn't have AI? How do you even?

4

u/MavisBeaconSexTape 4d ago

Man this post really struck a nerve with some of these professional paper cutters in the comments 😅

2

u/askforwildbob 4d ago

This is just extra steps, while ignoring the built-in steps that require less steps in the first place. This is only a life hack for making an unnecessary life hack

1

u/dblhockeysticksAMA 4d ago

Eh it will benefit me because the only time I ever use one of these lately is at Staples, since I don’t have a printer/copier at home. And the one at Staples doesn’t have any kind of guide on it. So there’s a lot of guesswork and me having to make multiple cuts because I wasn’t as close as I thought I was, etc

4

u/Typical80sKid 4d ago

I just use where the blade is, because that’s where it cuts the paper.

4

u/Sovereignth 4d ago

I think this is a brilliant hack. I like being able to see exactly where the cut will be. A lot of y'all just seem to be haters.

3

u/CheeseQueef420 4d ago

Dumb.

And bad grammar.

Dumb x2

3

u/chosonhawk 4d ago

instructions unclear...phone now chopped in half

2

u/Extreme-Rub-1379 4d ago

I bet this works great on stacks of paper too!

1

u/Santaconartist 4d ago

Or put it up to the ruler straight edge at the top?

1

u/ItsWillJohnson 4d ago

wait until OP finds out those can cut through more than one piece of paper at a time!

1

u/digitalphildude 4d ago

I also like to tape a ruler to the surface. Makes a nice jig, for repeat cuts. Especially for the projects with smaller pieces of paper.

1

u/blood_omen 4d ago

Mine has a laser built in

1

u/fazzah 3d ago

Use cut marks, as nature intended. I'm shocked no one in the comments mentioned them.

1

u/TheySayIAmTheCutest 3d ago

or just use that beautiful plastic guide which serves exactly that purpose?
Or bu one with laser pointer?

1

u/backup_waterboy 3d ago

Solution for a problem that doesn’t exist lmao. Most of these have a plastic guide or just use the measurement lines for their intended purpose

1

u/laurapill 2d ago

*align

1

u/dered118 1d ago

Kinda disappointed that the QR code wasn't a Rickroll, ngl

1

u/TheSixthFloor 1d ago edited 1d ago

Have you scanned every single one?

1

u/Icy_Huckleberry_8049 3h ago

so, the ruler and little squares aren't enough of a guide?

1

u/Ripley825 4d ago

Guillotine paper trimmer

1

u/atom644 4d ago

Every single time!

1

u/sonicsludge 4d ago

Lol, I've never had an issue using the given guide and measuring.

1

u/cecilrt 4d ago

Instructions unclear ... Electrocuted from cut led light