Help me understand laminating

AP90

Well-known member
Ok guys, we picked up an older used laminating machine for free. Cant hurt anything to try and use it right? Im just so confused on the process of finishing covers and what laminate to use. I figure for covers 1.3 or 1.5 mil is the best to use. The laminator we have is a roll laminator. So to do booklet covers, would I want to get an 18" wide roll and then feed the 12x18 covers in and then take them to the cutter to trim? Also, how do I cut the covers off the roll of laminate so that when I take them to the cutter I will get good cuts? I saw something about OPP laminate and that you can just peel the covers off and take it to the cutter without any problems. But I can't find OPP laminate rolls anywhere online. Also, would 12x18 pouches work?

I know, a ton of questions in here. I just really am pretty clueless on this process.
 
For now we just expose two edges of the paper to the cutter, leaving them out of the laminate to get good cuts. Put a sheet of chipboard above and below the laminate sheets and also using the good edge of the blade for cutting seems to help.
 
As Priceline said, expose two edges. In your situation with a 2-sided laminator, I would leave a side edge extended beyond the edge of the film, and slightly overlap the sheets as you (hand?) feed them. This way when you separate them, your two exposed edges will form a corner that you can use for register when starting to cut them.

We run a 1-sided laminator here because our core business is book manufacturing. Covers laminated on two sides is VERY uncommon, virtually unheard of.
 
For now we just expose two edges of the paper to the cutter, leaving them out of the laminate to get good cuts. Put a sheet of chipboard above and below the laminate sheets and also using the good edge of the blade for cutting seems to help.

Ok so if I'm understanding what your doing is say feeding the paper in the 18" side with an 18" roll of laminate. Then just cut the sheets out of the roll place then with one of the 18" sides against the cutter sides to still give you a straight cut on the 12" sides? Im not sure you can even understand what I'm saying, but it makes sense in my head :rolleyes: lol
 
Well we like to use a pouch laminator with 5 mil laminate, as our 27" laminator is not reliable enough to do quality-sensitive jobs. A bit different of a thing since you can actually leave two complete edges exposes, whereas with a roll laminator you can only leave one edge, but of course two corners exposed. The pocket laminator of course has its own drawbacks, but we have yet to find a better solution to laminating at less than $10,000 price tag.
 

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