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What laminator should I look for?

whgjettdesigns

New Member
I am currently using a 30 in big squeegee. On smaller jobs it's great but on big jobs it's just not cutting it. I'm just wondering what the new best thing would be and looking for something not hard to use. I will never be using anything wider than 36 in media. Any suggestions would be great!!
 

njshorts

New Member
look for someone dumping an enduralam... i've seen people get frustrated with them and sell em for a song. ours works perfectly, it just takes a bit of finesse to load 54" laminate.
 

coastek

New Member
USTECH laminator might be a choice for you, heard lots of good feedback on this forum, it is affordable, works better than a Daige machine~~~
 

davearama

New Member
get a Seal

Lot's of good laminators out there...used would be fine if you can get a bit of training and make sure it works.

Consider leasing one...got a used Seal Basic-one year old and hardly used-and leased it through Advantage Leasing for about $200.00/month. Would have been about $8000.00 new. Lease is up costs me a buck to buy out.

Get something you need now and five years from now. Some of the cheap laminators are pretty bad and you'll want to get rid of them when you get bigger and if you'd bought/leased a better one five years earlier you wouldn't be in the same fix again.
 

AUTO-FX

New Member
I watched a video on some chinese laminator where they just pulled the print through. It took two people though to do anything large, as one person had to handle to laminate and backing paper. Those cheap laminators dont always have the upper roll handler or a take up reel for the backing paper.
 

Custom_Grafx

New Member
I watched a video on some chinese laminator where they just pulled the print through. It took two people though to do anything large, as one person had to handle to laminate and backing paper. Those cheap laminators dont always have the upper roll handler or a take up reel for the backing paper.

Yep! I worked with one of these for a few years, worked great. Reason I asked how long the longerst piece you'll be working with is exactly because of the lack of take up roller.

The easiest way to do things, is to have a bench on one side, preferably as long as the longest print you'll be working with - say 8' (2400mm)?

The biggest drawback is, that you need to pre cut to size the piece of laminate you need, and are almost always better off making the laminate a bit narrower than the print so that you don't have to worry about a sacrificial liner.

In closing, keep in mind that these machines were primarily made for mounting prints to substrate - so you get a 2 in one tool here - these machines are great for mounting IMO. If my shop was big enough I'd keep one just for that as I find it easier to mount with than my royal sov.
 
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