The Rotary Cutter was first invented in 1979 by the Olfa corporation. It’s hard to think that before its invention, women used scissors to get their fabrics cut into small pieces. I don’t think I would have gotten a straight cut! Thanks Olfa for making it easier to cut out our fabric.
Here’s a quick video on how to change the blade. Blades should be changed with every new project.
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Hello. Today I want to show you on how to change a blade on your rotary cutter.
So I pulled out all the different sizes that I own, starting with the 28mm, and I use this for small cutting, pieces like if I’m appliquéing, or if I’m paper piecing. The 45mm is the one that I use the most, and that’s just going through two layers to do all my cutting and sub-cutting. And then the 60 mm which I use when I’m going through multiple layers, like 10 to 12 layers in one shot.
And, so those are your three different sizes. And rotary cutters come in all different shapes also. And this is the newest one which is very easy to change the blade.
But I want to go back to the ones that I showed you first because, for me these are the ones that fit the best on my hand. So with that, what I’d like to do is show you how to change the blade. And to do that, I’m going to show you how to do that.
What you want to do is, first of all take your rotary cutter, and you put your index finger on the round piece, the front piece, which is called the stem of the rotary Cutter. You’re gonna place your index finger, and grab your rotary cutter, and just flip it. Now, when I change my blades, I always do it over a table so that if something should fall, it’s not gonna go very far. Its’ gonna to sit right on the table.
The next thing what you want to do, is while your finger is on the bottom, while you’re still holding the stem, you are going to unscrew the nut. And once we unscrew that nut, I’m just going to place it down on my table.
The next thing that you’ll notice is that you have a little piece called the washer. And you’ll see that the washer has a little curved thing to it. So you want to make sure that you put that curve sitting straight up, so that you have the curve like that. And, I’m going to lay that right next to my nut.
Once I have that, some rotary Cutters have another piece called a spacer. This one does not have a spacer, so we are not going to worry about that. We’re going to go ahead and flip our rotary cutter back to the right side again, and I’m going to remove the stem, and place that down next to my washer. You’ll notice that you have your blade, and what you wanna do is, be very careful because even though, your blade is dull from the cutting, it is not dulled enough to cut you. So what you’re gonna do is take it out, and slide it out, and place that down. Put your new rotary blade. And when you open your package of blades, you’ll notice that some packages come with one blade, and some packages come with multiple blades. Make sure that you are only grabbing one blade. This one only comes with one blade. The other thing that I want to show you about blades is that, sometimes it comes with a little bit of oil on it, and you wanna make sure that you leave that. Do not wipe that oil off.
Go ahead and flip the blade on to your hands, and flip that blade on top of your rotary. Once that’s done, go ahead and take the stem, and place the stem so that the blade is now in place. I’m just gonna make sure that my blade is also closed. I’m going to return my index finger, holding down the stem, I’m going to flip my rotary cutter, and then I’m going to replace all my units. So there’s my washer, and again, make sure that your washer is sitting with the curve up. And then I’m going to take my nut. Now, you’ll also notice that the nut has an innie and an outie. And so you want to make sure, see where the, it almost looks like a well. And you wanna make sure that, that is faced down. And when you turn to tighten your nut, just tighten it enough with your hands. You don’t really need it too tight. You’ll know once you have placed your rotary cutter. If it’s really hard for you to open your rotary cutter and roll it, then you’ve pressed it too hard, then just loosen that nut a little bit. And that’s how you change a blade.
With the newer cutters, very simple, all you have to do is, turn the rotary over the table and just press the change button down, and take your blade out, you place it with a new one, and place that back on, and push that back up. And that’s as simple as it gets.