Overview:

• The GBC Smartcut A500pro is a heavy duty professional quality rotary paper trimmer that is ideal for cutting photos, matboard, trimming laminate, scrapbooking and precise trimming of paper documents.


• The A500pro is rated for cutting as many as thirty sheets of paper at a time and includes several features not found on most other rotary paper trimmers.


• This review will provide an overview of the A500pro and will identify the strengths, features, weaknesses and limitations of this cutter.

• The GBC Accucut A500pro is a heavy duty industrial quality rotary paper trimmer. It includes a sturdy metal cutting base and has a heavy duty metal rail for the blade to travel along. The metal construction of this unit helps to ensure that it is prepared for precision cutting and trimming.


• The A500pro has a manual clamping system that helps to hold the paper in place during cutting or trimming. GBC's smaller and less expensive rotary trimmers do not have a clamping feature. The clamp on the A500pro allows it to cut more sheets of paper and to offer more precise cutting than is available on either the 300 or 400 series of Accucut trimmers.


• The A500pro has a transparent cutting guide that allows you to see the path where the blade will travel, this makes it easy to align your documents for cutting. It also has alignment lines and a ruler printed on the cutting table to help ensure precision cutting every time.


• The A500pro uses a heavy duty balde housing that slides along the stationary metal rail of the machine. When the clamp is engaged, the rail becomes locked in place and the blade housing can be engaged by pressing down and moving the blade along the rail.

• The GBC Smartcut A500pro cutter offers a 12 inch cutting length and a fourteen inch wide cutting table. This is adequate for trimming most smaller documents. However, if you need to trim larger format documents it will most likely be helpful to have a longer cutting length and a wider cutting table.


• Unlike the A300 and A400 series of cutters, the A500pro does not have blades for scoring, perforating or wave cutting. The A500pro is strictly a heavy duty professional trimmer that uses high quality round cutting blades. If you need these other features, you will need to find another unit.


• The A500pro requires the use of a special heavy duty cutting mat. The machine comes with one cutting mat but in the process the cutting mat will become worn and the cutter will become less effective. It is important to change the cutting mat on a regular basis in order to ensure that the cut quality is maintained.

• The A500pro is an excellent heavy duty professional quality paper trimmer. It is ideal for trimming almost any type of document or paper.


• Provided that the 12" cutting length and the size of the cutting table is adequate for your needs, the A500pro is an excellent choice.


• However, it is not recommended for large volume paper cutting. Instead it is designed for trimming of documents and laminated materials.