What's a good bang-for-the-buck Mat Cutter?

BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
This frame game is making me crazy, and I'm enough a DIY-er that I will not pay someone to custom cut mats for me when I suspect I can justify the cost of one just with the framing jobs I want to do for the house.

For those of you who do your own framing, what's a good mat cutter to get? I've heard good things about the Logan cutters, but in reading the reviews it seems like they may have gone down a notch in quality of late. I'm considering this one...

Amazon.com: Logan Compact Elite Mat Cutter: Arts, Crafts & Sewing

...and will be using it it for prints up to 13x19 (mat size ~18x24). Anything bigger gets printed elsewhere, and usually by my brother who has a big old cutter that can handle bigger mats if I need them (he's just an hour away so borrowing isn't easy).

Is that good enough, or is it worth it to invest 70% more in something like this?

www.amazon.com/Logan-Graphic-Produc...2?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1393849029&sr=1-2
 
J

jrleo33

Senior Member
Jake: Logan makes very good framing products. Framing is an expensive hobby, even after you buy a cutter. Check E-Bay and Craigslist for used.
 
D

Dave_W

The Dude
jrleo33 said:
Jake: Logan makes very good framing products. Framing is an expensive hobby, even after you buy a cutter. Check E-Bay and Craigslist for used.
Click to expand...

Spot on. I make a lot of killer finds at garage sales and swap meets. And if the frame is beyond repair, the matte is usually still usable. As much as I would love to some day make my own mattes and possibly even frames, it's just so easy to buy old scuffed up frames that you can sand and paint for a fraction of the price of new ones.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
That would be great if the Mrs. was into that look, but she wants something fairly uniform throughout. I almost started a rant on how ridiculous it is to walk into a Michael's and got through 8 frames and find them all imperfect in some form or another.
 
Top