Have you ever gone to your mat rack to pull a dropout to use as a top mat , only to find surface loss from the ATG smeared across the surface?  Made you mad didn’t it? Did you need to order a full sheet to complete an 8” x 10” project? Made you doubly mad didn’t it?

Here’s a way for you to never suffer through that frustration and extraneous cost again.

When cutting multiple mats, cut the mat blanks at the same time. Always make sure they are square, even if they are 32 x 40 from the distributor. Once you have cut the mat blanks, fan them out and mark a few light pencil marks from the edge of the mats to a few inches inside the perimeter to show their original alignment from the time they were cut. Let’s say the bottom mat is to be 3” and

the top mat is to be 2 13/16”. Assuming you use the stops on your mat cutter, set them to reflect the top mat measurement and cut the mat. Reset the stops to reflect the bottom mat

measurement and cut the mat. ATG the back of the top mat and align the two mats together using the light pencil marks. Put them together and you are done. The dropouts do not have ATG

residue and they are ready to be stored in your dropout rack. Some people think it is not good for a

wall mounted mat/glass cutter to cut two separate 4-ply mats at the same time. If this is the case, how does one cut either an 8-ply or a 10-ply mat?  It is a puzzlement.

BOTTOM WEIGHTED MATS

If you use the procedure listed above to cut a project with multiple mats that call for a weighted bottom, the easiest and quickest way to complete the project is to cut the mats based upon

the largest dimension needed for the weighted bottom. Example:  3” matting top and sides with a 4 ½” weighted bottom:  Determine the overall size of the mat blanks using the 4 ½” dimension. Cut

each mat accordingly and join together.  Trim 1 ½” from the top and sides and you have the finished project completed in less time.  Obviously if you use a computerized mat cutter, reading this article has been a complete waste of time.  If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for future articles please let me know.

JOHN GRIMES

CLAYTON ROAD FRAMING

636.394.2901