sharpening V-M film cutters

[P3D <baker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to a tip offered by a local friend who claims to have sharpened his
own View-Master film cutter, I tried it on two of my cutters and achieved
what I consider success!  One of these cutters was so warn, the chips
would often remain attached to the strip along one edge, requiring use of
tweezers to tear them free, then use of scissors to clean up the torn
edge.  And this was _not_ something that was fixable by tweeking the depth
adjustment screw -- I tried that many times, with no success.  But now,
even this cutter works like a dream!

The upper film guide can be removed by bending the front two tabs out of
their slots (these tabs are held in place by the rivetted "butterfly
spring").  The rear two tabs can then be worked out of their slots by
sliding back and forth out from under the spring.  Once the film guide has
been removed, the cutting edges are fully exposed and can be carefully
filed with a flat file, just enough to clean them up.

I do not recommend trying to do anything to the bottom (fixed) cutting
plate.  If the holes in the bottom plate show no visible damage but there
are serious gaps between the upper cutters and the lower holes (as there
were with one of my cutters), a small blunt-tipped tool can be used to
VERY CAREFULLY tap, from the INSIDE OUT, the sides of the cutters in order
to expand them.  Then, by working the mechanism several times before
re-installing the film guide plate, the now slightly over-sized cutters
can be made to again conform to the size of the holes, eliminating the gaps.

Give it a try!

Paul Baker, Naperville, IL  pebaker@xxxxxxxxxx


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