Laminating prints to harder substrates..... some tips?

[gabagoo]

Thanks to the member that showed that you can cut alaumapanel with a heavy duty knife and snap it....what a time saver and love the fact that the shop floor stays a lot cleaner without all the black inners from the alumapanel tracking around everywhere.

So now , I was just wondering how many of you would apply lets say a 4 x 8 print to a 4 x 8 board and get it down perfectly aligned...? Do you trim the graphic to size before hand so you can see where it sits or do you over size and trim later.

 

[CP Signs]

Your welcome for the knife trick. Lol. I trim the prints first.

 

[2B]

Over size....trim after. I like a 1/4" - 1/2" bleed depending on size and material.

+1

makes it so much easier.
Plus very rarely are the substrates the same size, or the correct size at that. you will have slight size variations on each sheet and precutting the vinyl is going to cause issues.

 

[jfiscus]

Oversize print. Use your laminator to run the board and graphic through - It'll be a lifesaver.

 

[ddarlak]

overprint 1/2"

 

[gabagoo]

I have tried oversize, but how do you know if it is aligned straight? is there a trick? I have also seen wherby I think it is lined up, but somewhere between starting and finishing, it has shifted as much as 1/8 or 1.4". hardly noticeable but I am anal

 

[Gino]

Our prints generally don't stretch too much if at all, but I'm sure there is something going on when doing this.

We have 14 signs to do which we printed this morning, we'll laminate them in the morning and then put them down late morning.

We put about 1/4" bleed on three pre-determined sides. Usually we do this on the 4' side. Line up the true side and we'll probably use the Big Squeegee to put them down.

We wanted these to be more durable than running them through the flatbed, so we printed them on the Roland, lamed and down they go tomorrow. Good for about 5 or 6 years at least. They're all going in a shady place, so not much sun will hit them, if at all.

 

[Billct2]

One edge the "factory edge" on the print, the others bleed- I like that Gino