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*The SmartCut A200 is a personal paper trimmer that allows users to cut paper, add a decorative edge to their documents and score documents for easy folding.

*This small rotary trimmer is designed specifically for use in creating craft projects, scrapbooks , photos, labels, greeting cards and other personal short run documents.

*Known as either the GBC Accucut A200 or the SmartCut A200, this review will take a look at the features, strengths, weaknesses and limitations of the A200 dial-a-blade trimmer.

Features / Strengths:

*The Smartcut A200 paper trimmer has a convenient and simple to use Dial-A-Blade mechanism. This allows users to simply turn the dial on the machine and choose one of three different cutting blades. Out of the box, the A200 comes with a wave, straight cut and score blade mechanism.

*However, an optional dial-a-blade mechanism is available that includes a perforator, straight cut and score blade (part number 1312PB).

The Accucut A200 is designed for trimming documents up to 12" long and thus can be used with scrapbook papers and standard 8.5" x 11" sheets. It is rated to cut up to 5 sheets of paper at a time. However, it really does best when cutting just a few sheets of paper and is only designed to score or perforate on sheet of paper at time.

*The A200 has a nice transparent ruler that sets on top of the paper as you are cutting it. This ruler along with helpful grid lines on the cutting base of the unit are extremely helpful for getting your paper aligned on the cutter so that you can get straight clean cuts.

Weaknesses / Limitations:

*The A200 is made entirely of plastic (with the exception of the metal cutting blades) and is really meant as a personal cutting device. The cutter is great for occasional use but the plastic parts will most likely break if it were used heavily.

*The blades for the A200 Smartcut paper cutter come as a single unit. This means that you need to replace the entire unit if you wear out any one of the three cutting blades. This is something that is important to remember since the dial-a-blade cutting units can be a little bit pricey as compared to the original cost of the cutter.

*The cutting base of the A200 rotary trimmer is small. Although the blade travels along an 12" path the cutter base is only about 6" wide. This makes aligning larger sheets of paper much more difficult than it would be on a cutter with a wider cutting base since you can't align the back edge of the paper with the grid lines provided on the cutter.

Recommendation:

*The Smartcut A200 is an excellent choice for personal use in creating craft projects, greeting cards and for use in scrapbooking.

*It is the least expensive option that provides capabilities for scoring, cutting and wave cutting on the market and can even be used for perforating with the optional replacement blade.

*However, the A200 should not be considered for use for any type of industrial, commercial or even moderate volume application. The construction of the machine is simply not adequate for such applications.