Rotary Cutter Problems

I L.O.V.E. rotary cutters. I began quilting back in the day when they were relatively new and I know I didn't have one for the first small quilt I made. In 1991 when I made my first bed size quilt, I knew I wanted to get one. Money was pretty tight then, so I couldn't afford a larger one, which I wanted, so I got this:

This is a 28mm cutter. It worked fine for me for awhile. When I bought it, I also couldn't afford a large enough mat, so I bought an 11"x17" self healing mat. I still have it and use it for sub-cutting and trimming. The 28 mm cutter I use for curves now.

Once I could afford an upgrade, several years into my quilting, I bought a larger mat and this:

This is my 45 mm cutter and I used this baby for years and years. This is now the cutter I use for paper and other non-fabric cutting.

When Olfa came out with this model, I though that might be good since the guard moved back into place when released and you could secure it with the red button when done. I felt like it caused my blades to dull even more quickly with the sliding feature, so now I use it for my specialty blades like the pinking blade you see here and it is a dream for that use.

So then, Olfa came out with the Splash cutters in the early 2000's I think, and I loved the new quick change blade feature. I felt that it was a lot safer way to go. So I bought one. But recently, there has been a problem with it.

See how the guard doesn't really cover the blade? This is, I feel, a recent development. But I couldn't figure it out, so I ordered a new cutter. Then I decided to mess with this, because what else could I do to hurt it if I wasn't going to use it any more?

 So right here, where my stiletto is pointing, I usually have a build up of lint, which I clean out every time I change the blade. I cleared it, and it still wouldn't move all the way into position. So I forced it.

And that's when I noticed there was a ton of build up between the cutter handle (blue) and the guard (yellow). I used a pin, a tweezers, a business card to slide in there and after about 10 minutes, I was able to clear out all the lint, pretty much.

And now, you can see, my guard is all the way up again. I wanted to share this, in case anyone else has had this problem. I tried to google it, but no hits. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think so. So if this has happened to you, I would love to hear what you did to solve it. If it happens to someone you know, you can pass this information along to them.

I still L.O.V.E. rotary cutters and have only ever used Olfa. And now I will have another one to add to my collection tomorrow. I bought a pink one this time! Have a great weekend.