It is important that you maintain your cutter by oiling and greasing it so the machine will work smoothly during its cut cycle. Obsolete Cutter Parts are experts when it comes to paper cutters. Today we will share our paper cutter lubrication tips in this paper cutter lubrication guide.
When lubricating a paper cutter, important areas that need attention include the following:
LeadScrew Lubrication
Oil only! Do not grease the LeadScrew!
If you grease the LeadScrew, paper dust and other contaminates will accumulate like glue and cause the back gauge to drag when moving between cuts.
The back gauge runs along a smooth bottom guide; this area needs to be oiled. The guide has 3 sides, and all sides must be oiled. This is usually done by hand by putting oil on your fingers and rubbing along the length of the guides from front to back on all 3 surface areas.
Areas to also be oiled on the leadscrew include the front bearing that is located behind the handwheel and the rear bearing block where the leadscrew shaft comes out the back of the cutter bed.
On older cutters, there is a red dot on the bearing block that indicates it to be oiled. Most people do not know it there, but it must get oiled.
On newer cutters, the bearing is sealed ball bearings, so lubrication is not required.
Knife Gibs Lubrication
This is the area that the knife bar moves on that guide the knife bar up and down. These must be greased, both front and back.
The front side is easy. Take some grease on your finger and rub it on the left side front of the knife bar. Cycle the cutter and stop the knife down like you are doing a knife change and rub some on the right side of the knife bar. When doing the back side of the knife bar, exercise extreme caution as the knife is exposed. To do the right-side rear, the knife bar must be stopped down, and you will need to go around the back and remove the upper safety cover if your cutter has one.
There is a window opening towards the top of the machine on the left rear if you are at the back of the machine from which you can see down inside the machine. You will see the knife bar and the front and rear guides. You will need to take some grease on your fingers and rub it on both front and rear guides. Do not slop the grease on as we only want a thin coating, especially on the rear guide. If you used too much grease on the rear guide, the grease will pick up on the back of your knife and mark your sheets during a cut on the right side of your machine. If this happens, you will have to remove the knife from the cutter, and being extremely cautious, remove the grease from the back of the knife itself and then wipe your rear guide.
You can repeat the same procedure on the left side as well. The rear guide will not give you the same problem as the right guide.
Knife Links Lubrication
The knife links are attached to the upper part of the cutter’s frame with a pin and are attached to the knife bar with a pin. The cast iron links are critical to the knife bar’s downward movement. These must be oiled and greased.
There is an upper grease fitting on the rear of the cutter on both sides that you should shoot a couple of shots of grease into. Where the links attach to the knife bar, there are lower oil holes that must be oiled.
Under the Cutting Table Lubrication
Several areas must be oiled and/or greased under the cutting table.
The knife and clamp cylinders have oil holes or grease fitting at the bottom where they rock on the pivot pin. These must be oiled and any paper debris cleaned out. If you do not oil and grease and clean out the scrape paper, the cylinder can become so tight that it can break off the cast iron ears holding the pin in place for the cylinder.
There are also two grease fittings on the rear that must be greased. These lubricate the bellcranks that move the clamp up and down.
Attached to the bellcranks is a paralleling rod with a clevis attached to each bellcrank. These must be oiled, or damage will occur.
Keep Your Paper Cutter Lubricated
We hope you found value in this blog on paper cutter lubrication.
If you still have questions or need help getting your paper cutter back up and running, we offer technical assistance calls. Our expert advice is a service we provide by phone. If you’d like to hop on a call with Greg to troubleshoot your paper cutter, purchase your technical assistance call here.
We also sell parts for paper cutters and do offer on-site repair services for paper cutters in the Greater Cincinnati area.