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What is a good 60" laminator for $2,000

G

Giovanni indellicati

New Member
I'm looking to get a laminator for my sign shop, I am 17 years old and just purchased a hp54" large format printer and cutter and I feel that the laminator is what I need to give a longer lasting and higher quality install, does anyone know a good laminator that is going to last as well as it cost under $2,000 being 60 inches wide
 
ams

ams

New Member
You won't get one for that price, come up to $5,000 - $7,000 to get a low market one.
 
FatCat

FatCat

New Member
65in Master AK-600 cold laminator - Mounting Laminator [MASTER WORF AK-600] - $2,850.00 : USTECH, Home of Master worf laminator

This is as close as you'll find for a "good" laminator that is new. I've had this exact model (except its blue) for 4-5 years and its done everything from laminating wraps to mounting 4x8's. We just upgraded to a new laminator (GFP 563TH) and this one is now sitting as a backup. I'll let it go for $1500 - no nicks or cuts on the rollers, everything works as it should.
 
eahicks

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
FatCat said:
We just upgraded to a new laminator (GFP 563TH) and this one is now sitting as a backup. I'll let it go for $1500 - no nicks or cuts on the rollers, everything works as it should.
Click to expand...
How are you liking yours? We just got one last month...It seems to be pretty decent, a lot more work setting up, but for roll to roll stuff it's great. One off pieces are more difficult then we're used to with our old Seal 600-s.
 
FatCat

FatCat

New Member
eahicks said:
How are you liking yours? We just got one last month...It seems to be pretty decent, a lot more work setting up, but for roll to roll stuff it's great. One off pieces are more difficult then we're used to with our old Seal 600-s.
Click to expand...

Overall I am please with the laminator itself. Very well built, good quality components, laminates very nice and smooth and all the adjustments and tension knobs work very well and allow you to tweak things on the fly. Really digging the heated roller this time of year for calendared laminates.

However, I do have a few reservations - getting it to track perfectly straight on long runs seems to be more of a problem than I would like. Not sure if its how we are loading the material, or if the rollers need adjusted (which I haven't had the time to mess with yet.) Sometimes it holds true forever, other times it's 1/2" out after 8-10'...not the end of the world, just a minor issue. The BIGGEST issue I have is with the take-up system. Absolutely a piece of garbage, almost laughable and most certainly engineered by idiots. The worst part is that sadly, this was the main reason we upgraded to a new laminator - because we wanted to stop feeding laminated prints out on our biggest work table and simply allow them to be rolled up like the printers, then take them off, cut them down, etc. I honestly would have been better off just getting a generic take-up system and modifying it to fit vs adding on "their" take-up system.
 
eahicks

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Yeah part of our decision to get this was the take up reel system as well, and so far I think it's worked great. Took some trial and error to get it to feed synchronously with the the rest of the machine, but once set, and if everything is straight, we can set it and walk away, and having it all rolled up on the spool is nice. Unless of course the print has walked a bit and you have a 1/2" strip of laminate hanging off that has now wound up nice and tight on the roll. Then it's more work.
 
FatCat

FatCat

New Member
[QUOTE="eahicks, post: 1368853, member: 35920"Unless of course the print has walked a bit and you have a 1/2" strip of laminate hanging off that has now wound up nice and tight on the roll. Then it's more work.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, this has been our main issue - the combination of the laminator not tracking perfectly straight, and then having it walk 1/2" or more really makes for fun times when trying to cut down a roll of prints or a wrap.

However, the other thing we battle is simply getting the tube on and off the takeup mechanism - for some reason the tension spring is like 3-4X harder to squeeze than the one on the laminator itself. Also, it seems to slip a lot and we wind up getting wood "dust" in the gears - seems like it could have been designed a lot better IMHO. Would love to hear some tips from you guys if you're not having trouble. Maybe we just have a "problem child" takeup system or maybe it's us - I dunno... but nothing like having buyers remorse on something you were hoping was going to solve a problem...only to have it cause others..
 
d fleming

d fleming

New Member
"I am 17 years old and just purchased a hp54" large format printer and cutter"

You go kid, at 17 I was screen printing using hand cut stencils and hand painting signs, doors and vehicles with quills and starving to death. Couldn't have financed a pogo stick.
 
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