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by Peter Brett - Dec. '08/Jan. '09
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01444 440188
The Cutting Edge Cutter
However, as I delved into the history of the development of the BladeRunner, it was clear that its development was not a linear progression from good idea to conclusion, it actually involved solving some critical issues. This took a lot of thought and many practical experiments, and I guess it was helpful that Artex, sister company to British Gypsum, had access to stocks of plasterboard during its development! It must have taken mountains of it to come up with the finished BladeRunner!
The experienced builders I have shown the BladeRunner have at first not been able to guess what its function is. On offering a few clues and separated the top and bottom parts to show the cutting wheels, the penny has usually dropped. Still some scepticism remained - until the demonstration on a sheet of Gyproc. And then the talk very quickly became “how much does it cost and where can I get one?” So far, so mysterious, so I need to give a quick run down of the tool itself.
The BladeRunner is in two parts - top and bottom, with an alloy face on each part. A pair of spring-operated legs hold the two parts about 12mm distance apart, whilst strong magnets nevertheless keep the two parts very firmly together. (Just an aside - solving the problem of the magnets was a lot more difficult than it looks. Just try playing with a pair of ordinary flat magnets getting them to keep orientation and you will see what I mean.) Concealed in top and bottom pieces is a pair of hard-edge wheel cutters. They are directly in line with each other and work on the board as a pair - one on the top surface of the board and one on the bottom. As the user slides the BladeRunner onto the Gyproc Plasterboard, the “legs” are flicked back and the cutting wheels are brought into contact with the surface. Then all the user has to do is guide the tool across the surface and off the end, where the legs snap back in to place again.
The Gyproc Plasterboard is then gripped firmly with two hands and with a sharp snapping action, the scored piece is broken off. I can personally vouch for the fact that it is that easy and quick. It will never be a chore for me to cut plasterboard again.
Since I wasn’t paying for the plasterboard, I went crazy and I tried cutting wavy lines (just as easy as straight lines) corners and oddly angled shapes. With a bit of clever manipulation here and there these jobs were done much more easily with the BladeRunner and were less time consuming than the traditional knife and straight edge. The hardest cut I tried was a rectangular hole for electrical sockets, which was a little more difficult and required more practise.
Here a saw and knife would probably be quicker. One of the key reasons why BladeRunner is quick and efficient is that the board is scored top and bottom in one movement, so the snapping action usually results in a clean edge. With a knife cut board, if only one surface is scored, the unscored surface usually has an unsightly trail of torn paper hanging from it. If both surfaces need to be scored using the knife method, a heavy board has to be turned over for this to be done safely. This is time consuming and a hassle and is certainly not efficient.
If a board needs to have a straight section cut from it, a slot in the front of the BladeRunner will hold the tape measure end, and with the correct measurement lined up with a thumb on the tape blade, it is simple to run the tool across the board to get a scored cut parallel to the edge.
By definition, cutting with a blade, the operator has to pull the knife blade along the line while walking backwards. Most builders can probably manage that action safely most of the time simply because they have got used to it, but there is a risk of tripping. With the BladeRunner, the cutting action is walking forwards, so tripping risk is minimised and of course, a forwards action is more normal to us.
Other advantages include the cunning idea of keeping the cutting blades in a cartridge that is easy to slot in and out (via blue buttons) without danger of cutting oneself. The blades will last long enough, I am told, to cut all the plasterboard required for three semi-detached houses! New blades come in packs of 6 or 12 and cost less than £5 and £10 respectively.
The cost of the BladeRunner itself may seem to be a bit extravagant at about £35, especially since a knife and a pack of blades can be had for less than a tenner these days. But factor in the amount of time saved, the simple efficiency and neat cutting performance of the BladeRunner and the economics are a bit of a no-brainer, even for a jobbing builder who may not use plasterboard that often.
I would certainly recommend the BladeRunner as a tool, but most of the proof that I needed came from the number of times I had to wrest my sample away from the builders who tried it out. Its mine - keep your hands off it!
Independent Review by Peter Brett
Airstream Communications