does anyone know of an alternative to The Big Squeegee Laminator found on fellers?

[signage]

Yea I hope your customer finds a cheaper sign shop or your price for the vinyl and beats you up on price! Cheap deserves cheap

 

[Sign Works]

An alternative to an alternative??? The big Squeegee is the alternative to a real laminator.

 

[Fred Weiss]

It kinda makes me think of the first time I became aware of people taking my 200 x 300 pixel watermarked images from my website of my hand traced clip art and tracing it themselves rather than spend $4.95 for the quality version. I guess there's a perverse pleasure that comes from avoiding paying for something by paying with one's time instead ... which has, evidently, little or no value.

 

[player]

I can save you a ton of cash. Instead of dumping out your waste ink bottle, refill your black cartridge with it. You will have super rich blacks and never buy black ink again.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

It is worth every penny.
How much is your time worth?
You spend 4 hours making one or 10 minutes ordering one.

From a pure economics standpoint (as I understand your motivation to be since you said you didn't think it was worth $150)...... how much money would it cost you to get a piece of PVC pipe, cut it to the proper convex, mount it to a large teflon board and add more PVC pipe for the handle? Then, would it work as intended? If you were able to create a working substitute for the Big Squeegee, how much time would you have invested into making said bootleg squeegee?

I'm pretty handy with tools but I think I would have at least 3-5 hours into making a working replica of The Big Squeegee plus the cost of materials.
At my shop rate of $30 per hour plus cost of materials I would probably have very close to $150 invested in a cheap imitation. Why not just drop the coins to get one without all the headache of trying to reinvent the wheel? Time is money and 5 hours spent on making a product which is readily available is time that could be used to complete jobs for paying customers. I would rather spend 5 hour MAKING money instead of 5 hours LOSING money.

This merely MY economic interpretation of the situation present in the OP.

FYI, The Big Squeegee is available as low as $79.95

Absolutely, Seal makes a dang fine alternative to the big squeegee. First time I used a BS was rebranding the canopies at a gas station in wrap vinyl. Thing paid for itself in ten minutes.

Yea I hope your customer finds a cheaper sign shop or your price for the vinyl and beats you up on price! Cheap deserves cheap

It kinda makes me think of the first time I became aware of people taking my 200 x 300 pixel watermarked images from my website of my hand traced clip art and tracing it themselves rather than spend $4.95 for the quality version. I guess there's a perverse pleasure that comes from avoiding paying for something by paying with one's time instead ... which has, evidently, little or no value.

There's no use trying to explain it. Some people have no business sense. This should be a no brainer.

 

[reQ]

BS is cheap tool & its worth it like many people said already. Plus, Dale got code in his signature to get extra 30% (or something like that) off any order. So just order direct.

 

[Zac]

I use a piece of DiBond with loop side velcro on the edge when I need to. But it's just for mounting quick prints or small laminated pieces when I don't feel like rewebbing our laminator.

Making tools out of scrap is being innovative. Not ripping anybody off or taking food out of anyone's mouth. I get supporting vendors but wasting your time wishing he loses customers? Grow up.

 

[Zac]

Dbl

 

[0igo]

I don't understand why everyone is all mad. I'm going to buy a real BS as soon as the new versions come out. I spoke to Dale he said they "should be out in a about two weeks". anyways don't understand all the insults and people getting butt hurt. bunch of girls on this bro

 

[Gino]

Same ol' story. Too many wannabees in this industry that can't see the valedity in the necessity of proper tools. So many wanna charge what the good guys get, but offer up subpar products.

Why is it, so many in this industry can't afford proper tools or supplies ?? There are entry levels on each and every piece of machinery, but yet some don't or can't afford the simplest of them.

Why is that ?? Gotta start somewhere syndrome ?? Don't know any better ?? Just don't care ??

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We use a OrangeA 51" compression roller laminator. Best $200 we ever spent.... Before that we used a modified safety ruler with the flat stock stainless edge and felt wrapped over.

 

[0igo]

We use a OrangeA 51" compression roller laminator. Best $200 we ever spent.... Before that we used a modified safety ruler with the flat stock stainless edge and felt wrapped over.

where did you get your compression roller at? is OrangeA the brand?

 

[phototec]

where did you get your compression roller at? is OrangeA the brand?

Here is a source on ebay, and they might except a lower offer?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/51-1300MM-C...097292?hash=item5d5ff8c48c:g:yCIAAOSwo3pWb9qx

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

where did you get your compression roller at? is OrangeA the brand?

We bought ours from Amazon and it showed up in 2 days. Looks like the price went up slightly though: http://www.amazon.com/OrangeA-Laminator-Laminating-Machine-29-5Inch/dp/B016VY2E7K?th=1&psc=1

 

[TomK]

We bought ours from Amazon and it showed up in 2 days. Looks like the price went up slightly though: http://www.amazon.com/OrangeA-Laminator-Laminating-Machine-29-5Inch/dp/B016VY2E7K?th=1&psc=1

Does that mount to the table or just sit on top of it?

How do you handle feeding the lam through it? Can you make a short video of you using it?

I'm in the process of looking for something other than a big squeegee, but don't need a full 55" laminator machine, as most of what we do are small 3 or 4 foot sign runs that need to be laminated. This OrangeA looks interesting but looks like a pita to use with having to hand feed the lam and print through.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We don't use it for laminating, we have a gfp for that. All we use it for is mounting prints right now. It is a table top unit and weighs roughly 65lbs. We are building a rolling stand for it to but up to our tables and we have another unit that we have disassembled to make a flatbed table out of. We are searching for electric or pneumatic actuators to turn the lift screws right now.

 

[JP4]

Have you tried to laminate with it at all? I have been using a 30" model for a while and it does remarkably well to be so inexpensive. It works similar to the notorious Daige w/ the adjustable height on each side. Once you get use it it it works great. I have been wanting to try one of these but nervous about dropping a grand on it.
Thoughts anyone?

BTW- The Big Squeegee products are great. Cant wait to see what they come out with to replace their current models.

 

[player]

Have you tried to laminate with it at all? I have been using a 30" model for a while and it does remarkably well to be so inexpensive. It works similar to the notorious Daige w/ the adjustable height on each side. Once you get use it it it works great. I have been wanting to try one of these but nervous about dropping a grand on it.
Thoughts anyone?

BTW- The Big Squeegee products are great. Cant wait to see what they come out with to replace their current models.

You would be better to spend a bit more. The problem with the laminator you showed is there are no brackets to hold rolls of material, or collect the backer. The brackets are found on some cheap models, but they are also useless because there are no brakes to create resistance when laminating. One like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/63-Semi-aut...eb65edc&pid=100005&rk=3&rkt=6&sd=261817565309
has roll holders and what looks like brake adjusters on the top brackets. Notice the front roll holder has no resistance...

The brackets on the top don't seem to have a substantial piece of metal holding them to the machine. This could make them easily move to the left and right causing other issues. The flimsy metal could possibly be beefed up. Maybe not though.