Used Edwards Guillotines For Sale

A Truecut is the right machine if you are cutting sheet up to about 3.5 mm, you want something simple and fast, and you want parts to be cheap and available.

A VE or VR is the right machine if you are into plate, you need to cut different thicknesses without fighting twist, and you want a programmable backgauge.

• Mechanical. A flywheel stores energy and a clutch releases it into one stroke. Fast, rigid and simple. UK dealers put the practical ceiling at about 4 to 5 mm, and around 3 to 4 mm for a direct drive machine.
• Hydraulic. A motor, pump and cylinder. Slower per stroke but far more controllable, and it takes you all the way up to plate.
• Treadle. Foot power and no motor. Fine for thin sheet and short runs.

Guillotine Or Swing Beam

The blade economics are the part people miss. Four edges top and bottom means three turns before you need new blades. Two edges on top means one turn on the top blade. Over the life of a machine that is real money.

The moving blade is set at a slight angle, normally between 0.5 and 2.5 degrees, so the material does not wedge between the blades.

• Low rake puts more blade in contact at once. You get a square, flat edge, but it takes more force.
• High rake works like scissors. Less force needed, but you get a small roll on the top edge and more twist and bow in the cut piece.

Twist is the strip curling into a spiral. Bow is it curling downward. Both are worst on long narrow strips off a high rake machine, and both are exactly what a variable rake machine like a VE or VR is for.

One number that surprises people: three eighths mild steel is only 50 per cent thicker than a quarter inch, but the shear load goes up by 225 per cent at the same rake setting.

A guillotine is rated in mild steel, at a tensile strength of around 40 to 45 kg/mm², on a machine in good condition. Change the material and the capacity changes with it.

• Stainless steel. Expect around two thirds of the mild steel rating.
• Aluminium. You can cut more than the rated thickness.

A real Edwards Pearson 6.5 mm machine is advertised as cutting 6 mm mild steel and 4 mm stainless. That is 67 per cent, right on the rule.

Always confirm against the machine's own plate, and if you will be cutting at full capacity all day, buy a size up.

• Material. Guillotine blades are made from high carbon, high chrome tool steel. Premium blades run 58 to 62 HRC.
• Edges. A parallel guided machine normally has four edges on both blades. Turn them and you have a fresh edge.
• Turns. Four edges top and bottom gives you three turns. Four bottom and two top gives you three on the bottom and only one on the top.
• Regrinds. A properly looked after blade can be resharpened 15 to 30 times before it needs replacing. UK regrinders quote about a week from collection.
• Blade clearance. The gap between the blades as they pass. Published rules vary between about 5 and 10 per cent of material thickness, and more for stainless. Too tight and the fractured metal has nowhere to go, so you get double cuts. Too wide and you get a heavy burr as the metal is pulled into the gap.

We tell you where a machine's blades stand before you buy it, not after.