Laminating large prints with a cold roll laminator

[@markjill7438]

Love your style mate.. Cheers!

[@Petej728]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@katherinelangford981]

Nice video. I do A4 laminates but am considering larger ones as i can print 42" wide as long as i need. Id max at 24" dor laminations but was curious how to do it at a larger scale. Thanks for the info. Also, shout out for sparing that little bugs life!

[@Petej728]

And thank you for watching.

[@FlorenceLaud-Anderson]

Hi Pete thanks for the great Video. What laminate can i use for cold rolling. i stuck with wich one to buy. Any assistance would be appreciated...

[@Petej728]

Hi and thanks for watching. The only thing you need to be aware of, when choosing laminate to use in this machine, is that some laminates (not all) are temperature reliant. In that the adhesive doesn't adhere correctly unless heated up to a certain temperature. Saying that, these are very few and far between as a lot of signwriters want a laminate the could also apply by hand (for smaller signs/prints). I used a very large mixture of laminates:- gloss/matte, standard and wrapping laminates and never once had any issues. But if you are unsure, just ask the supplier if heat is required to apply the laminate to any substrates.

[@FlorenceLaud-Anderson]

Thanks soo much@@Petej728

[@simpatiko2k5]

Great video. Can you do a video on applying laminate to a printed sticker and then applying it to a whole sintraboard or acrylic sheet? Im from the Philippines by the way. Thanks!

[@Bottleworksnet]

Thanks for the tips!

[@josalynnkirby9124]

What laminator are you using, or what laminator do you suggest to use for people just starting out?

[@Petej728]

Electronic or heated roll laminators are quite expensive when you first start out. You could possibly pick up a used/refurbished model, but they still aren't cheap. Also, the way the laminate is loaded/unloaded means that you can lose quite a lot of material if you have to frequently change laminate types (gloss/matt/satin/wrapping etc). A friend of mine says he loses about 2 metres off a roll when he has to change to a different type. This is due to the amount that has to be fed into the laminator before use (that is not used for the first laminating job) and the amount at the end he has to cut off that is already in the machine. The laminator I use in this video is a cold roll laminator. It has some electronic functionalty, but that is only to feed the material through the rollers via a foot pedal, but not to heat the rollers up. The biggest difference between a cold and hot roll laminator is that with a cold roll laminator, you get an effect that is known as 'silvering'. This is caused by the adhesive being cold/cool and produces very, very small (almost microscopic) air bubbles between the job and the laminate. However, going over the job with warm air and a solid rubber roller will make most of this disappear. In fact, just time in warm weather will make this effect almost invisible. The cold roller I used was from GAPS UK Ltd (www.printcutandfinish.co.uk/ -- I put a link in here but not sure if KZbin will allow it). Also, I;m not too sure what part of the world you're in, but I'm sure there is an equivalent version in your country if you are from outside of the UK. Anyway, the machines are cheap (compared to the 'however many thousands of pounds' price tag of the other machines), but work very well within their budgeted price range. Also, you can get smaller versions of the same machine to suit your purposes. But I will say this. If you think you can get by with size 'A', try to stretch your self a little and get size 'A+'. Because, at some point, you will be asked for a bigger job. Hope this helps and thanks for watching.

[@josalynnkirby9124]

@@Petej728 You're amazing! Thank you for all the information. It's been an interesting journey and I'm enjoying heat transfer vinyl much more but I have a couple businesses looking to have me do their truck vinyl so I've been trying to research and research and your video was super helpful in understanding some of the method. I truly appreciate it!!!

[@buoyinthewater]

Do you know how to enable the foot pedal control? I can't seem to get mine to work. I have the same model laminator.

[@Petej728]

Been a while since I used the foot pedal as I always preferred to do it by hand + I retired last year and so haven't even got the laminator to test on. However... I just looked at the front panel on the GAPS website. If I recall correctly, the + and - buttons set the speed which is displayed in the LED display. You set the direction the roller turns by using the two triangle buttons for feeding in or out. You also then need to press the little foot pedal button to receive the signal from the foot pedal. Finally, you have to make sure that the lever at the side of the laminator (same side as the control panel) is pulled out (I think) to engage the bottom roller with the drive motor. The lamaniator pedal should then work. Hope this helps.

[@thansanga3887]

I like this machine

[@arundassidheshwarphotofram2318]

Price?

[@stephencrozier2194]

why not laminator using the machine forwards, isnt what you'd doing in reverse to how the machine is designed to work? ie you stood at the front and the work generally would go in from the front not the rear as you just did?

[@Petej728]

If you use the laminator in the direction you are saying (forwards), you need to have 2 rollers. One to hold the laminate and one to hold the print job so that they don't go onto the floor. The laminator I was using didn't have those 2 rollers. Also, It was a lot quicker to do it this way because I didn't have to take time to set other things up. Just cut the laminate and then complete the job.

[@stephencrozier2194]

you could of done exactly what you did but from the front side if your offset of ACP was supporting the job at the right height. doing it your way on some laminators will do 2 things, 1. bypass the safety features of th magic eyes so if somethign gets caught like a finger the machine would stop. 2. lots of laminators only have a very slow reverse speed and no control over it, doing it forward gives you multiple speed options of most machines.

[@Petej728]

I'm not really sure what point you're trying to make other than to criticise the method. However, there are a couple of things it appears you have missed. First, I wasn't doing it on "some laminators", I was doing it on the specific cold roll laminator shown in the video which means: 1. This type of laminator doesn't have a magic eye and so it wouldn't automatically stop 2. I was operating it by hand which means that if I somehow managed to get my finger caught, I would instantly stop 3. If I HAD actually plugged in the foot control, this machine does have multiple speeds in both forward and reverse 4. Yes, I could have done it from the 'front side', but that would have meant that I would have to prepare the job on the bench, then transfer everything over to the ACP and then just run it in from that side back onto the bench. So, bearing in mind my previous points, why not just prepare it on the bench and then run it straight out from there? You are trying to criticise the method, but applying the method to laminators that I didn't actually use. The method I show is purely for this type of laminator. I wouldn't show someone how to perform a specific task on a specific machine by demonstrating on a totally different machine.

[@stephencrozier2194]

you really have misunderstood my comment or I have mis communicated I, absolutely not about criticising. first comment was asking why as to me using a machine back to front of how its designed didnt make sense. the other comments were so anyone else reading using other machines would understand that. not about pointing out things wrong, more discussion about other methods, neither being wrong, just different

[@Petej728]

Okay, miscommunication then. As I said, the reason I was using it 'back to front' as it were is that this is a very cheap machine and it didn't come with the facility to mount the laminate AND the print job at the front like more expensive machines (Easymount, Mimaki etc). But if you imagine I had the workbench at the front (or just turned the laminator around 180 degrees) the method would be exactly the same using the laminator manually (which was my preferred method for control in case I balls'ed it up).