What am I looking for in a cheap Laminator?

[JohnnyB60]

I spent pretty much the whole day looking at laminators. They run from $35 to $1900. They have roller ones, pouch ones, hot and cold ones. I’m getting tired and confused.

I’m not planning on making a living on this, I just want to save some money by doing it myself and so I would like to keep it under $50. I found some used ones on eBay for around $20, but I have no idea what I’m looking at. I did see one that was listed at 125ºF and I read on that 270ºF was needed. So I just don’t know what people are buying for under $50.

 

[Aussie Susan]

I bought a "cheap" laminator and "hacked" it to change the temperature regulator to let it heat to required the higher temperature (and also added in a thermal fuse in case it got too high). Works well although the plastic body of the laminator gets a bit soft and I need to be careful not to touch it or I get the plastic leaving marks on my board.

You need to be careful about the thickness of the boards you use as you can strain (and strip) the drive gears on the rollers - after all, the laminator is often designed for a sheet of paper and a couple of layers of thin plastic, not a PC board. However, with some gentle guidance of the board and paper, I can do double-sided boards reliably.

Susan

 

[JohnnyB60]

Oh, now that’s interesting. I didn’t think of that, maybe I can do that. There are a couple of laminators on eBay for under $10
I saw a video of a guy someplace in Europe I think who was using what appeared to be a homemade laminator. Now that you mentioned this, I’m wondering if it was “hacked” as you mentioned and just had the plastic cover removed because of the heat problem.

I have 1/16” boards. I hope that’s not too much.

Thanks Susan for responding.

 

[bobledoux]

I use a GBC 9 inch Creative Laminator I bought at Staples for $25. I use it unmodified, making multiple passes through the machine. It prefers .032 thick board, but will handle smaller .062 boards by feeding a corner first.

 

[shortbus=]

If you join this group (free) there are tons of information on the laminators and mods to them. And helpful people too.

**broken link removed**

 

[JohnnyB60]

If you join this group (free) there are tons of information on the laminators and mods to them. And helpful people too.

**broken link removed**

Well I joined the yahoo group right after you posted and I’m having such difficult time of finding anything in Yahoo Groups that it gives me a real headache.

I’m a member of 4 yahoo groups and I try to avoid all of them. It’s not because of the people or the information, its just I have such a difficult time following the thread hierarchy in Yahoo that I usually end up completely lost and confused.

So anyway I want to thank you for trying

 

[shortbus=]

Well I joined the yahoo group right after you posted and I’m having such difficult time of finding anything in Yahoo Groups that it gives me a real headache.

I’m a member of 4 yahoo groups and I try to avoid all of them. It’s not because of the people or the information, its just I have such a difficult time following the thread hierarchy in Yahoo that I usually end up completely lost and confused.

So anyway I want to thank you for trying

Did you try searching - Laminator - on the site? I know what you mean about the hierarchy, you would think with it being Yahoo it would be better. But because of it being Yahoo, I very seldom use Yahoo as a search engine.

 

[JohnnyB60]

Did you try searching - Laminator - on the site? I know what you mean about the hierarchy, you would think with it being Yahoo it would be better. But because of it being Yahoo, I very seldom use Yahoo as a search engine.

Yes and I'm still looking. I see a lot of interesting stuff and I know I'll find something but its taking some time trying to follow along. I had to take a break and started looking at the homebrew files.

 

[JohnnyB60]

Yes and I'm still looking. I see a lot of interesting stuff and I know I'll find something but its taking some time trying to follow along. I had to take a break and started looking at the homebrew files.

Well I found something in the Photos titled “another GBC laminator mod” now all I got to do is find the information to go along with the photos.