Advice regarding new laminator...

[SellersSign&Design]

I picked up a used but like new 25" US Cutter Little Lightning Lam laminator today. I got a great deal on it, and it looks to be a pretty solid machine. I played with it some today, but I am looking for any helpful tips on using it. The instructions are horrible, I already tried reading through that horrible mess of Chinese-English translation. I have it webbed correctly, and it seems to be doing ok. But I have never had a "real" laminator so there are some things I haven't figured out yet.
-At the beginning/end of prints, what do you do about keeping the laminate off the rollers? Stick in a sacrificial piece of vinyl or aluminum?
-What is the correct pressure to put on the rollers? I cranked both sides down until I felt the rollers touch, and then went about a quarter turn more. There doesn't seem to be much of an exact way to set both sides evenly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is a picture of the machine:

 

[player]

Yes keep the laminate off the rollers. You will need to have a little extra material before and after.

 

[astraios]

-At the beginning/end of prints, what do you do about keeping the laminate off the rollers? Stick in a sacrificial piece of vinyl or aluminum?

Maybe it is easier approach leave blank +10 inches at the beginning and at the end of the print.

-What is the correct pressure to put on the rollers? I cranked both sides down until I felt the rollers touch, and then went about a quarter turn more. There doesn't seem to be much of an exact way to set both sides evenly.

To achieve even pressure on both sides with 2 handles can be frustrating. You can use the same technique as it is for adjusting rollers parallelism:

Cut two 4 stripes of material you are going to laminate. Put each stripe on edge of rollers and lower the roller. Than adjust roller pressure until you get the even tension on both sides while you are puling stripes by hand.

 

[SellersSign&Design]

I was trying to avoid leaving a lot of material at the leading and trailing ends, because that is a lot of waste especially when dealing with gold vinyl. But after thinking about it, it really doesn't matter because I will include the extra material in the pricing. Almost everything I laminate is 12" wide prints on 15" vinyl, so I don't have to worry about the laminate extending past the sides of the prints, just the front and back edge.

 

[player]

A cheap way to gauge the tension on the rollers is to buy a fish scale. Hook onto the material in the laminator with some banner clamps or really good tape.

Either pull on the material or run the laminator and hold the fish scale to see what the gauge reads for the tension.

This may work. It helped me to diagnose my rollers are screwed...

 

[astraios]

I was trying to avoid leaving a lot of material at the leading and trailing ends, because that is a lot of waste especially when dealing with gold vinyl.

If graphics you are laminating aren't very long you can make a 'carrier board' (reverse mount liner with silicone side up - see: https://youtu.be/_h9pzVCLWs4 ). After that just laminate graphic on 'carrier board' (see: https://youtu.be/F5OUj7Eo5VY ).

 

[Drip Dry]

I don't have that brand laminator, but why are you worrying about it sticking to the rollers ?

On my machine I just peel off the section that is sticking to the roller and help it out until the substrate is coming out. I still need to help it out of the laminator anyway. Sometimes I leave it loaded and sticking to the rollers overnight. However, some
laminates have glue that's a bit aggressive and is harder to peel off the roller in the morning.

You could also a sled. Something like a thin styrene that you can insert just before the last of the job goes through. Stop it while the styrene is in the bite of the rollers.

Some manufacturers say to use kraft paper through the whole job. I've tried it when I first got my machine and it seemed to cause too many creasing problems as well as being an added expense