Apparatus and method for cutting gel and other sheet materials

Manually operable apparatus for cutting gel or other flexible sheet material, comprising a cutting table and a longitudinally reciprocable traveling bridge mounting a transversely translatable cutter carriage supporting a cutter assembly for manually selective movement to any position on the cutting table, said traveling bridge including an idler roller which is mounted to contact the table and which extends across the table commensurate with a range of movement of the cutter assembly, the idler roller being mounted parallel to and closely adjacent the cutter assembly such that a blade supported on the carriage is always close to a point of engagement of the roller with the table, whether the blade is being moved transversely to the table along the roller or whether the blade is stationed on the bridge and the bridge is being moved longitudinally along the table, whereby flexible sheet material being cut is always firmly held against the table by the idler roller close to a point where the knife engages the flexible sheet material to minimize wrinkling or tearing of the sheet material by the blade;

• said idler roller having means of being engaged to frictionally hold said gel materials while cutting.