THE GOOD:
This really is your best bang for you buck when shopping high quantity paper cutters. We purchased the 17" cutter for the office about 4 months ago so we could chop large quantities of flyers as well as to trim book bindings, etc. We also use it to crop the white print border on both flyers and 11" x 17" posters. Some reviews mentioned there weren't good directions but I didn't find this hard to figure out at all. In fact it was quite easy. We've paid for this cutter several times over in labor and ease of use. I've cut as many sheets as will fit under the gate clamp and it cuts through with perfect accuracy like butter (over a ream of paper). The cutting block is easy to rotate as needed and seems like it creates a good surface to cut against. This product is built very solid and seems like it's great quality. It's also quite large and takes up a significant amount of counter space.

When using this machine you should first measure or know the desired output size, then set the slider to that length. You then lower the gate to hold the paper in place before you cut. If you are just trying to line up paper visually you'd have a tough time with this product. Just measure first and it'll work perfectly. The lever is quite large providing a large amount of torque and comes off for easy storage and safety.

THE NOT SO GOOD:
I really can't say much negative about this product other than how easy it is to damage the safety pin and the blade if you are not careful. Because this was for an office, some coworkers didn't realize that you must press and hold the safety button when pulling the lever down. This ended up bending and damaging the safety pin welded to the lever arm. I was able to bend back the pin, and after a couple more failed attempts to press the button down, the pin finally sheered all the way off. Although it's nice not to have to worry about the button, it is significantly more dangerous not to have the safety pin anymore.

The other problem we've had is with the blade itself. Another coworker was using the device while trying to cut the metal spiral binding off a book and wasn't careful in lining up for the cut. He realized afterwords that the metal binding was in the way, causing nicks all the way down half the blade thus making it almost impossible to use for future jobs. I wasn't able to find anyone local sho could evenly sharpen a blade that large so I took it to our shop to try. They did a good job at getting it back to 90% but the middle of the blade no longer cuts the last 2-3 sheets (which is a pain for smaller jobs). A new blade from Hardware Factory store costs about 30 bucks so it's not the end of the world.

OVERVIEW:
This is worth every penny! Just make sure those using it are familiar with how it should be used and I expect it'll last a long time.

Pros: has no problem cutting through 24lb & 20lb paper, card stock, and varied thicknesses of chipboard. I'm not sure why people warned against card stock, but mine cuts through it with no problem. And I had no problem cutting through short stacks of paper, like 5-10 pieces. Helpful hint if you're having issues getting through a short stack of anything - put a few pieces of scrap paper on the bottom of your stack under the cut (I didn't have to), but it'll help if your red strip is wearing out. Speaking of short stacks, don't cut pancakes - not gonna happen (but now I'm hungry for pancakes).

Cons: the black cheap plastic fence likes to move easily. Hard to keep square & accurate. I have to use a square to help while tightening it down. Gotta watch it after each cut to make sure it didn't move. And my biggest pet peeve that I didn't notice on day one, was that the press does not come down level!!! Paper gets "wrinkled" or pushed toward the fence while you are cutting - results in cut not being straight down or square! Frustrating!! Poor design or they did not adjust it properly. It has to come down level in order to grab all of the paper with the same force - which it doesn't. A lot of people complaining about their papers wrinkling & such. I imagine it's the same issue. My pic shows it's uneven/un-level. Left side in pics is where all of the 8-1/2 x 11" paper needs the evenness in particular. This thing is too big to send back (it's a heavy sucker). I'll try the manufacturer to see if it's adjustable or I'll try to fix it myself. Precise cuts are required or I have to buy a different brand.
UPDATE: I stand corrected, their website does have instructions to adjust the press level. I didn't check there before my rant. I did find a the screw for the press handle was welded crooked, but that's another subject. SO, I was able to level the press and it holds the paper down way better. I still have to crank the thing down an incredible amount to hold the paper from moving - i have an idea to remedy that - I'll try it and post back. THIS ALL could have been avoided had they included some type - any type -of instructions or paper with my cutter, but nope, none, zilch! Please, HFS, include at least your web address instructions in your cutter box!!

This paper cutter is amazing! After reading other positive reviews I decided to take a chance on it, although I was still wary that it sounded too good to be true. Our church wanted to bring our weekly bulletin printing in house and needed to be able to cut about 1500 half sheets per week (750 sheets of paper). This cutter will do them all in two cuts with zero issues. We now use it for all our flyers, handouts, anything we need to but more than 10 of as it is just too efficient not to use it.

It is heavy and a little longer than an average counter top (it hangs over our counter about an inch). But the size is totally worth it for the amount of work time we have saved by not having to stand in front of a regular trimmer cutting 10 sheets at a time. Really, you can't beat this thing for the price and cutting power it has. Even if we had to buy a new one every other year (hopefully we won't), it would still be worth it in my opinion.

This product works fairly well, except that however many sheets we cut with it, it leaves the bottom few uncut (even though the entire blade makes contact with the stop on the bottom). The instructions say that this means the blade must be adjusted, but they provide no information on how to do that and upon removing the covers on the mechanism we found there simply IS no way to adjust the blade. The instructions also recommended turning the cutting surface (the red plastic blade stop) to fix this problem, but turning it didn't seem to make any difference at all.
Also, no matter how tightly a stack of paper is clamped, the blade still manages to pull it slightly to the side and crease the top few sheets.

Just got the paper cutter today. All was well with it, nothing damaged. Instruction page was in the box as well and the shaped styrofoam packing snugly protected the cutter. As far as the weight of this thing: yes it is heavy but I gently cartwheeled this 50 lb box up the stairs and then unpacked it, gently standing the box up vertically to move it out of its styrofoam housing and then lowering it down. I never had to carry the whole weight of the cutter by doing this.

One important safety note (that is why I give it only 4 stars): The safety latch does not reliably re-latch after lowering the handle during a cut and then putting it into the home position. At least I found it for my paper cutter. You appear to have to move the lever back and forth at times for the safety latch to engage. Other than that, it cuts like butter. Tip: To less wear down the red cutting strip, use some scrap paper as sacrifice material at the bottom of the to-be-cut material. As a benefit, you can then use the sacrificial paper to move out the cut off material without getting your hand under the blade. But anyways, always make sure the safety latch has engaged before having your hands anywhere near underneath the blade.

Anyways, during my first 2 hours of use I find this a great product !