lamination

[Geneva Olson]

It's crazy what nonsense people will do and the time they will waste to save 20 bucks. How don't you see it's gonna be short too?

I had two signs on the roll and was pushing it through. I cut it super close...and close enough to lose a print out of it. It was about a foot too short. I'm not sure how I would see if it was going to be too short. laminate is a thinner mil than the vinyl. (I tend to use 1.3 mil cast on everything. arlon 3170).

 

[Boudica]

I had two signs on the roll and was pushing it through. I cut it super close...and close enough to lose a print out of it. It was about a foot too short. I'm not sure how I would see if it was going to be too short. laminate is a thinner mil than the vinyl. (I tend to use 1.3 mil cast on everything. arlon 3170).

get yourself a digital caliper, and then I will show you my method for measuring what's left on a roll, if your interested. I've shared it on the forum in other threads, but it works and has saved my butt in "gambling" both in printing and lamination... when your working with a low roll, and need to know if you will win that gamble.

 

[truckgraphics]

You put soapy water on the print?

Sure. It's not something we'd do every day on a sheet of vinyl, and certainly not on a large sheet of vinyl, but it works. Of course you might see the seam up close, but if the image is 20 feet from the road, you won't see it.

We wouldn't run it back through the laminator. Instead we'd use a soft squeegee. It's the same technique used to float frosted vinyl on windows.

Admittedly, it's pretty rare we'd do this with a sheet of vinyl. But we often do this to replace a letter on jobs where the letters are printed and cut. If we ruin a letter, we'll take some scrap (sometimes pre printed for just such an occasion), float a piece of laminate over it, and put it back in the cutter. It's cheaper and faster than printing off a roll and running it through the laminator.