• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

laminating pure black print

C

Cova

New Member
I have some job to do, it's small black printed sticker. 99% of sticker is printed full black and need to be laminate.
I don't have laminator machine, but I use some kind of big squeegee laminator tool. Problem is silvering. On full color prints I dont see that problem, but on pure black it's too visible to sell stickers like that. Will it ever go away, or its not possible to do this job without laminator machine? I am using 3M polymer vinyl and 3M polymer overlaminate film.
I also try with liliquid laminaton, but there is problem with litle air bubles. Liqiuid lamination is good for canvas, but for vinly just dont work for me.

Tnx for any advice.



[h=1][/h]
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
For the liquid, if you are not spraying it on, then use a small nap roller, like 3/16". Lay the clear on and move slowly so you don't create bubbles. Going too fast will create more bubbles. If you get some, just lightly...... very lightly roll back over it. This will pop bubbles as you go. Keep doing it til almost all the bubbles are gone. This could take several passes, til you're finished, but if you don't have the correct equipment to do it right, then you hafta be careful.
 
B

Brink

New Member
Silvering is a common problem to have if lamination is not applied with enough pressure. They make heat assist lamination machines to apply cold laminate. The heat helps with just that sort of thing. (silvering) You may not be able to apply the laminate over dark colors using a big squeegee without causing silvering.

If you could really do it right without the $5k lamination machine, they would have a real hard time selling them. It's a required feature of most sign/graphics shops.

There is always the liquid laminate option. I don't know if that will do for this job though.

I wish I had a trick for you. Maybe you could sub out the lamination part of this job and avoid taking lamination jobs in the future till you get a machine.
 
M

Morkel

New Member
The only way to speed up the "will the silvering go away" process is to put the stickers out in the direct sun for a few hours after laminating. If after that time there is still the silvering look, then it's not going away.
 
B

Brink

New Member
Seriously, the big squeegee is nice for mounting vinyl onto boards, but it makes a poor excuse for a lamination machine.
 
C

Cova

New Member
Gino said:
For the liquid, if you are not spraying it on, then use a small nap roller, like 3/16". Lay the clear on and move slowly so you don't create bubbles. Going too fast will create more bubbles. If you get some, just lightly...... very lightly roll back over it. This will pop bubbles as you go. Keep doing it til almost all the bubbles are gone. This could take several passes, til you're finished, but if you don't have the correct equipment to do it right, then you hafta be careful.
Click to expand...

Tnx for advice, I will try move slowly.
 
C

Cova

New Member
I have electric heater in shop and can use for heat vinyl, but I don't what temperature I get.
Clear sheeld in spray it's not avalible in my country.

Now, after 2 days vinyl that I laminated with squeegee it's much better than first day. That's almost good for sale to customer.
Unfortunately, I dont have directly sunshine in shop
 
T

TimToad

Active Member
Cova said:
I have electric heater in shop and can use for heat vinyl, but I don't what temperature I get.
Clear sheeld in spray it's not avalible in my country.

Now, after 2 days vinyl that I laminated with squeegee it's much better than first day. That's almost good for sale to customer.
Unfortunately, I dont have directly sunshine in shop
Click to expand...

We have only a cold laminator, and use liquid laminates only when appropriate, but we will use a hair blow dryer quite frequently to reduce silvering on dark background prints. I find the heat is sufficient to remove the slivering while being more spread out than our heat gun. Whether or not that would work with a hand laminated situation, only you can try it and tell.
 
M

Morkel

New Member
Cova said:
I have electric heater in shop and can use for heat vinyl, but I don't what temperature I get.
Clear sheeld in spray it's not avalible in my country.

Now, after 2 days vinyl that I laminated with squeegee it's much better than first day. That's almost good for sale to customer.
Unfortunately, I dont have directly sunshine in shop
Click to expand...

Neither do we. We just tape the prints to the walls outside or bring a portable table outside and tape them to that. A lot faster than 2 days!
 
Behrmon

Behrmon

Pr. Bear-Mon
We only use our Big Squeegee for mounting but if we had to laminate with it I'd prob use Oragquard 210, I think it's a much nicer and forgiving cal lam than 3Ms cal, in fact I don't even like their cal lams in our laminator.
 
phototec

phototec

New Member
I use Oraguard 210 & 290 overlam (depending on sub-straight requirements) on smaller jobs using the Big Squeegee laminating tool over solid black and get slight silvering, but it goes away over night. The BS laminating tool is different from their other vinyl application tools.
 
P

player

New Member
Cova said:
I have electric heater in shop and can use for heat vinyl, but I don't what temperature I get.
Clear sheeld in spray it's not avalible in my country.

Now, after 2 days vinyl that I laminated with squeegee it's much better than first day. That's almost good for sale to customer.
Unfortunately, I dont have directly sunshine in shop
Click to expand...

Get it really warm. REALLY warm.
 
boxerbay

boxerbay

New Member
buy a laminator. short of that figure out a way to warm up both items. could also be the lam you are using.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top