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// cut. paste. copy. repeat.

A zine collective's blog about photocopiers, glue sticks, and the scrappy little publications people staple together at midnight. How-tos, rants, and interviews from the back of the print shop.

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Paper Cutting ASMR, But Make It Useful

Scraps · · by · 1 min read · Updated · analog, typewriter

Paper Cutting ASMR, But Make It Useful

People keep asking for a video of the guillotine cutter. Here is the calming clip we loop while we trim.

Not everything we make becomes a zine. Some of it stays as a scrap: a half-page of lettering, a collage that never found its text, a joke that only works on the back of an envelope.

This post is one of those drawer-emptying sessions, written down so we remember what was in there.

Print nights are pay-what-you-can. The jar covers toner and paper most months, and when it doesn't, we hold a swap and sell the duplicates from the lending shelf.

If something here doesn't work for you, write in. Half of our how-tos have been corrected by readers, and the corrections are always better than the original.

A note on paper: we buy recycled 80gsm by the box and it runs through every machine we own. Heavier stock is lovely for covers, but it will jam the old copier if you try to feed it more than ten sheets at a time.

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TALK Comments 8 scrawls
  1. Kit Moreno

    Honestly this made me dig out a box of my own old zines.

    Reply
  2. Aurelie Fontaine

    I have never thought about paper weight this much and now I can’t stop.

    Reply
    1. Ines Duarte

      Good question. We will add a note to the post.

      Reply
  3. Marcus Yoon

    Saved this to print out, which feels like the right way to save it.

    Reply
  4. Hana Sato

    Do you trade? I have a perzine about bus drivers I think you would like.

    Reply
  5. Lou Ferreira

    Thank you for writing this down. It’s the kind of thing people only ever explain in person.

    Reply
    1. Ollie Brennan

      Legal size works; just trim a strip off the long edge first.

      Reply
  6. Wren Castellano

    Love this. Any chance of a workshop on it at the next print night?

    Reply

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