China Laminating Table

[fresh]

As I said earlier, our laminator rollers need some love. I found someone to recoat them, but they will be out of service for 3 weeks. My dream is to have a laminator table, but our volume doesn't support us purchasing a $20K machine... so I just found this: https://www.sign-in-china.com/produ..._cold_laminator_for_rigid_amp_flex_media.html

Garbage? Worth it? I will say we were VERY happy with our Master Laminator that cost $2700 brand new and lasted for 5 years without a single issue. Even now we just need new rollers, the machine still works fine. So i'm inclined to think this one will work well, too. Should I consider this or just run away?

 

[TomK]

Link isn't working.

 

[2B]

there are several threads discussing flatbed applications from China and the vendors that are suggested

 

[player]

I read one thread where the china roller table was so poorly made that it was completely unusable.

 

[player]

As I said earlier, our laminator rollers need some love. I found someone to recoat them, but they will be out of service for 3 weeks. My dream is to have a laminator table, but our volume doesn't support us purchasing a $20K machine... so I just found this: https://www.sign-in-china.com/produ..._cold_laminator_for_rigid_amp_flex_media.html

Garbage? Worth it? I will say we were VERY happy with our Master Laminator that cost $2700 brand new and lasted for 5 years without a single issue. Even now we just need new rollers, the machine still works fine. So i'm inclined to think this one will work well, too. Should I consider this or just run away?

It is 51", so if you want to laminate 54" vinyl it won't work. Did you notice in the photos they show 2 different units? Which one will you get or will it be different yet again.

 

[equippaint]

Did you notice in the photos they show 2 different units? Which one will you get or will it be different yet again.

Speaking from experience, that is a big problem with buying from them and the Chinese in general. They will picture one thing and send you another (I recently had that happen). This company has multiple different names they sell under and multiple ebay usernames but it is all the same people. Just a heads up. The master laminator is Chinese but you're essentially buying it through an intermediary that filters out the BS to ensure a decent product with no surprises.

 

[player]

I bought something recently from Aliexpress and when you order they give a bunch of BS how you have buyer protection like you get from Amazon. HAhahahaha.
They sent me a completely different unit that would not suit my needs at all. They say send back the other one and they will send me a new one. At this point it took 3 months to get the unit they sent me. I would be another 6 months plus I would have to pay for shipping. So I said just give me my money back, send me shipping vouchers, or just send me the correct unit. So after months of their "customer satisfaction" investigation, they say they want to punish the vendor but not too much. So they give me $20. Which I have never seen. I don't give a rat's behind about punishing the seller, I want to get the correct unit. Never buy from Asians. Months later the seller still has the photos and description of the wrong unit on their page. They are thieves and they do not care. Asia sucks.

 

[ikarasu]

If the table isn't perfectly flat... You'll get bubbles in your application.

A laminator is two rolls that are rubber pressing tight into each other. A flatbed roller is one roller and a hard smooth glass that has to be perfectly flat throughout so it's a smooth application... Or you.get wrinkles and bubbles.

Some Chinese stuff is good. You may even get a rare perfectly working flatbed applicator. But the problem with China is quality control... For every good unit they send out, they don't care if they send out 10 bad ones. And the 10 bad ones are going to people who are 10,000 miles away and can't do nothing about it.

A lot of people bought Chinese flatbeds on here... And they ended up with a $8000 cutting table, because that's all it was good for. And a few have got good ones... It's a gamble. But if your business can't afford a 20k table,it can't afford to gamble 8k on getting a good machine.

Check Craigslist.... Sign forum classifieds... Buy a used one. Even right now you can buy a used rolls roller with free shipping for 12k. 4k more than the Chinese one, you know it'll work... And there's not much risk.

https://signs101.com/threads/rollsroller-340-flatbed-applicator-for-sale-shipping-available.153737/

 

[FatCat]

If I might offer a suggestion, a couple years back I was shopping laminator tables. After researching the big boys (CWT and RollsRoller) I went to the NBM show in Indianapolis and wound up purchasing a CWT 1640 demo table at the show at significant savings. Now, you have to be ready to get it home right then and there - we wound up hiring a rollback who drove it to my shop the next day when the show closed. But if I had planned better, I could have taken a truck and trailer to the show to avoid that cost.

https://signs101.com/threads/rolls-roller-or-cwt-table.132839/

Now, I'm not necessarily plugging CWT - but what I am saying is that if you go to a show most of that equipment they are ready to let go at significant discount just so they don't have to load it up and haul it back to their shop. From the price I saw on your link, and if you consider you will be paying for some shipping and fees to get it here, you're not that far off from what I wound up paying. Honestly, I would stay far away from equipment that isn't supported with a local branch in the USA...that's too much money to gamble on. Very happy with my decision and would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We have a Chinese Application Table... It wasn't perfect and we had to modify it significantly to get it to work right.

We are currently looking at selling it and upgrading as we need a bigger table and a double roller but we are not looking at the Chinese route any more. All I will say is be careful who you buy from, if the table is out of square it is a pain to get level as you will have to remove 600lbs of glass and modify.

 

[fresh]

thanks for the input everyone. I did actually search the forums before i posted but I couldn't find anything specific. My partner thinks its silly anyway and we need to just figure out how to get the stupid rollers off our current laminator so I can send them out for repair.