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Recommendations for my first laminator?

E

Eggleston

New Member
New HP 335 print and cut owner here. We are making a lot of small decals and may get into larger stuff later on. I have years of experience with cut vinyl but am new to the print game.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a decent laminator? I know nothing about them and am not sure what all features I will need. I don't know the difference between hot and cold lamination and how it affects the media.

I've seen some for around $5k which is fine and I've also seen some weird cheap versions that are much less expensive. I know in most instances you get what you pay for so I would love to hear everyone's opinions on this issue. Thank you so much!
 
Behrmon

Behrmon

Pr. Bear-Mon
Kala if it’s in your budget would be my suggestion. Ran a seal for many years, good machines but I’m currently leery of their support.

we never use heat for our needs.
 
C

Chriswagner92

New Member
We run a 54" Royal Sovereign (rsc-1402cw) with our 335 with no complaints. The pressure is controlled by one crank on the side with notches, so it's not like you can infinitely adjust the pressure, but it does what it needs to do and pretty decently. I have laminated 75' runs with it pretty consistently, as long as you take a minute to align everything right. We got the laminator when we were still running an sp540v, but we rarely, if ever run any media that needs to be laminated over 54" wide.
 
E

Eggleston

New Member
Chriswagner92 said:
We run a 54" Royal Sovereign (rsc-1402cw) with our 335 with no complaints. The pressure is controlled by one crank on the side with notches, so it's not like you can infinitely adjust the pressure, but it does what it needs to do and pretty decently. I have laminated 75' runs with it pretty consistently, as long as you take a minute to align everything right. We got the laminator when we were still running an sp540v, but we rarely, if ever run any media that needs to be laminated over 54" wide.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

What are your thoughts on this?

https://www.grimco.com/Catalog/Products/RoyalSovereignRSC1401CLTWLaminator
 
K

Krittah

New Member
I’m in the same boat, new to laminating, not new to vinyl cutting. I just got a Daige Solo 55” and do not recommend it. So far I’ve not been able to make it work well for me. It was a pain to put together as well, simple screw holes were misaligned.
My main use for it right now is applying transfer tape to cut vinyl. So far, it’s very difficult to keep the vinyl from wrinkling as it goes in, especially on long runs which is one of the reasons I got it. I’m 1 month in to owning it, still trying to figure it out, and hoping there’s some tricks to make it work for me. But I’m getting close to putting it up for sale in hopes of getting some of my money back.
So I’d say cheaper laminators simply aren’t worth the time, but I also have nothing to compare it to. Actually, I do have a $100 manual laminator that works way better than the Daige, which is just sad. And since I’m new to laminating, this could all just be user error, so something to look forward to when you first start!
 
N

netsol

Active Member
we had a lot of trouble getting used to the daiges, so we made a slight modification
 

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I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
I’d definitely get one with a takeup if your budget allows.

We now run a full roll of vinyls, lam the full roll then throw it in either the flexa or the summa and they tank through it. Used to do a sheet at a time. The new way is much more fun.
 
McDonald Signs

McDonald Signs

McDonald Signs & Graphics
Daige 54" Solo laminater is what I use. It takes some getting used to, to make it work right, but we like it. I have 4ft x8ft tables in front and behind the laminator, built to the height to match the wood base I set the lamintor on and we apply laminated to decals then use the same Daige laminator to
apply the decals to material such as coroplast, pvc and max metal panels. We can do 4ft x 8ft or even larger. I bought 2 of the Daige laminators and keep one as a backup.
I can change it out in 15 minutes and get back to laminating while waiting on a part to fix the broken laminator. Low cost way to laminate.
 

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WYLDGFI

WYLDGFI

Merchant Member
Do you have a 60 inch wide printer? If you do...just move right on up to the 63 inch laminator.
 
I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
Wont be a huge additional cost for the extra width but you’ll never regret having a wider laminator. Especially if you’re going to use it for mounting as well.
 
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