Makes Cutting Carpet Pad a Breeze

Rockwell RW8943 Sonicrafter Sonishear Scissor Attachment

A couple of years ago my wife gave me a Rockwell Sonicrafter as a Christmas present. The model 5140 came with a handful of attachments, some of which I’ve already used in projects. In particular, the little cutoff saws have proven very useful for working in tight places.

Not long ago, I had an occasion to use another attachment, the Sonishear Scissor Attachment (model RW8943). All the rugs and runners in the house were slipping hazards on our hardwood and tile floors, so that same wife picked up a big sheet of Mohawk’s rug pad. The problem, of course was that the pad was about 8 x 10 feet, but the rugs were… well, let’s just say “smaller.” The upshot? We needed to make four cuts in the thick mat, a total of about 26 feet of slicing. The rubber-backed fiber padding was far too thick (about ¼ inch) to cut with regular scissors and while my attempt to cut it with tin snips was successful, I figured it would take a couple of hours (and some very sore hands) to finish all that cutting.



Light bulb time: didn’t my Sonicrafter come with a scissors attachment? Indeed it did! So we drew lines on the mat with a Sharpie® and attacked it with those Sonishears. Time needed to make an 8-foot cut? Perhaps two minutes – in other words, slicker ’n snake snot.
Unlike most of the attachments for the Sonicrafter (according to Rockwell, this fits only the 5139 and 5140 models, by the way), the Sonishear fits over the entire end of the tool. You have to take the screw-in mount off completely, socket the hex-shaped opening of the attachment onto your Sonicrafter, then reinstall the tool. One half of the shears is fixed, while the tool works the other half back and forth in a scissors action.

Rockwell says it’ll cut through tin (i.e., flashing), hardware cloth, wire, plastic, paper, cardboard, etc. It’s a lot faster and less “fussy” than using a utility knife on carpet and padding. The only thing that slowed us down was that the fibers kept collecting in the jaws, which sort of jammed the action. I’ve also tried it on paper and those damned plastic clamshells with excellent results. One thing I do wonder about is whether it can be sharpened…

For just a few bucks, my Sonishears attachment made short work of what would have been a ve-e-e-e-e-ry tedious task.

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