Dahle D552 20" Professional Trimmer, Price/EA

The Dahle 20" DAT552 cutter met my expectations for quality and Craftsmanship. The bed, guide bar, and head are medal, with silk screen scales; while the remainder of parts are plastic. I purchased the cutter to cut photographs and 1/8" foam backing.Test cuts of photo paper were made, using different weights from 23 to 207 lb. showed excellent cuts. [Note: this exceeds the spec of 2.0 mm, which is listed only on the unit. They advertise 20 sheets of paper! This is NOT a spec; 20 sheets of what? What weight?] Test cuts of the 1/8" foam backing was tight to insert under the pressure hold-down guide, but examination of the cuts were excellent.Test cuts to determine squareness showed that the cutter at minimum and maximum [20 1/8"] cut is true and square. Test cuts using the rulers also indicated that the DAT552 made cuts as expected with errors <1/64". Additional test cuts were made specifically to look for depressions, which showed NONE. Test cuts were made using 13x19, 69lb, 4X6, 74lb, 8.5X11, 80lb, and 8.5X11, 45lb photo paper. When cutting large paper, the adjustable paper guide must be removed.While there are a number of changes that could be made to improve the cutter, I am convinced that I made the right choice in choosing the DAT552.Cons: Determining the point of Cut, at the gate, is almost impossible, especially on a 13X19 size of photopaper. I had to perform the cut by using the ruler. Also, when you use the left stop; the material to be cut covers the ruler. The ruler scale only has inch scales on the left & right, not across the top. Across the top is metric scale only, an inch scale would be nice also. No Manual.Craftsmanship is excellent! The ability to be hung on a wall is also a nice feature.

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

This is a great cutter and beats the pull-down arm slicers by miles. It cuts through nice stacks of paper and keeps true to size on each one. It is sturdy and well built. I purchased it for my home business to trim rack cards. It slices through a stack like butter and saves me a lot on having a printer cut my cards. Well worth the purchase.The one mild drawback is that the guides don't lock very well. Once you learn that and hold the paper and guides firmly when making a cut, problem is solved.

Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!]

The Dahl trimmer works beautifully! I use it for trimming photographs. It cuts straight and will shave off the slimmest of edges for a perfect fit.

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

I just recently purchased this item from Photoland NY. I do most of my own printing as a photographer so I need to trim lots of photographs. When I used this trimmer on my photographs, it leaves a very distinct line going across the top of the photograph. This is caused by the pressure of the plastic ruler holding the photograph when you use the roller to trim the photograph. I believe in total quality products and having a line going across my photographs is unacceptable. Therefore, I do not recommend this product if you plan to use it to trim photographs. If you plan to use for paper trimming then you may have a winner. I didn't use it for that purpose so I can't totally support this trimmer. My search is on again for a high quality trimmer that doesn't leave markings on my professional quality photographs.By the way, I was using Epson Premium Luster photo paper. Didn't try glossy but my guess is the outcome would be the same or worse.

Rating: [2 of 5 Stars!]