Thanks for the pointer on storing the mat. I read the part about manually moving the cutter head but couldn't figure out how to do it. The newer machines don't have the arrows on the control panel. I've been using a small painting/pallet knife to remove parts. I normally use it to spread glue so I had to get the old dried up glue off it first. I think I'm going to get larger painting/pallet knife to use only for the cutter. The pallet knife is long, thin, flexible, and not sharp with a handle at the correct angle for mixing or removing paint--or paper from a cutting mat. It's got a bend so that the knuckles are above the pallet/mat. Pallet/painting knives come in an astounding number of sizes and shapes. I seem to be having trouble posting pictures. I keep getting a message that they are larger than the server can handle, even though I took the size down to quite small.