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Soooo.....I'm looking for some advice....

High Octane

New Member
I'm ordering a new Roland VG2 printer cutter this week....54" model.....also ordering a laminator....my Wensco rep is suggesting the gfp 55" cold laminator...is it better to go with the 63" laminator instead of the 55" for forgiveness sake if say it gets off track.....also what about heat assist...is this waste of money or not?...also what about the gfp laminator vs. the Royal Sovereign?.....I'm completely laminator igonorant...any help is very much appreciated
 
C

ColoPrinthead

Guest
Depends on how good you are at laminating or what you can tolerate in walk if you aren't (if you buy the larger size. If you can afford it I think it would be silly to go with the smaller size in case you wind up with a larger printer some day.

I never thought much about the heat and usually don't use it, but the other day when I was stripping vinyl from polycarb I noticed my cold lam'd prints were easily separating from the lam. Later I notice when trimming print the edges were separating. I realize this is probably happening because they were max saturation black prints, and didn't happen when I used heat. They were latex prints.
 

Andy D

Active Member
My setup would be 63" Royal Sovereign without heat assist.
63" incase I wanted to 60" material through it, such as mounting two printed vinyl panels to 60" material.
I had a seal with heat assist and never saw where it helped at all.

Not that you asked, but I would stay away from Roland, they have gone down in the last few years..
In this and many threads nobody (including me) likes Roland:
https://signs101.com/threads/is-mimaki-better-than-roland.158735/

I would get a Mimaki or Epson printer & a Mimaki plotter.
 

greysquirrel

New Member
gap is a super easy laminator to use...buy the larger one. You should own this thing for the next 15-20 years....I agree with Andy about Roland...this series anyway, but I can't drink the royal sovereign koolaid....not a fan myself. If you need a print cut look at a HP latex or Epson print cut bundle...hp teams with Summa and you will get a HP Flexi rip that will never expire or require you to pay for any upgrade....Epson plus with Graphtec...you will need to buy a rip
 

jfiscus

Rap Master
Go withe the GFP, 63TH model. We use the heat assist every time right around 110 degrees, it really helps make it come out looking perfect and the little boost of temps I personally believe helps with adhesion. We've ran thousands of rolls through ours and after only a little training anyone in the shop can use it.

Personally I'd also rethink your decision to get a 54" printer. Check out the Epson 60600 if your local dealer has a demo unit there.
 
Seal laminators are my favorite. Made in the USA too. I don't use heat too much set up for the size and quantity we produce. Bigger is better if you are planning on expanding.
 

Andy D

Active Member
Epson plus with Graphtec
I agree with Epson, but Graphtec is another company that seems to have gone down hill.
I used to swear by Graphtec, but we got in two of them & had problems with both... They
were very cheaply made & probably from China.
 

Andy D

Active Member
I have worked with many different type of plotters & my all time favorite has been Mimaki, Can't remember the
model number but it looked like this:

s-l400.jpg
 

Ardor Creative

New Member
My setup would be 63" Royal Sovereign without heat assist.
63" incase I wanted to 60" material through it, such as mounting two printed vinyl panels to 60" material.

Fully agree with this. I made the mistake of buying a 54" laminator then upgrading my printer to a XR640, which prints at 64". I basically can only maximize my printer when I run banner and cut vinyl. Def the wider laminator, especially for mounting purposes
 

MikePro

New Member
if you can afford the 63", just go for it. Even if you're not handling 60" media just yet, you might someday and wish you had it.
...like me :)
I've run the same 54" Seal laminator, with heat assist, happily without issue for 15yrs now.
 

High Octane

New Member
One thing to consider, mentioned many times, but a printer + plotter is still just one machine. It can do two different things, but if you don't have another plotter already, then little plot jobs will become a pain in the rear when you have a big print job running all day, and just need that one i dot (title?) that got weeded off a set of hours of operation.

But, since the original post was about a laminator recommendation, I have the GFP 63TH, and it's great. It mounts most flat panels I print, in addition to laminating just fine. Just paint/vinyl the ends of the take up reels to indicate which side hits the spring, it will save you 1 minute every time you load... 54" laminator would be as limiting as the 54" plotter I got paired with my 60" printer when we first got one...
I actually have a 30" roland cutter and a 54" printer cutter currently so not too worried about that part
 
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