Wet lamination

[NgnEngraving]

Hi All,

This is probably a silly question but I am curious.

Is it possible to apply water onto a digital print for laminating? or would this ruin it?

Thanks,

 

[kanini]

No idea but I guess your material warranties of any kind will go out the window the same time you take out that spray bottle... I guess you would have a hard time:

1. Getting the laminate to stick to the vinyl
2. Getting a good finish
3. Keeping the vinyl flat on the table while squeegeing the crap out of it
4. Getting out all of the water
5. Avoiding any bubbles
6. Avoiding silvering
7. Being cost effective
8. Looking serious

with this procedure... Just my thoughts, those who has tried it can probably chime in here...

 

[JLD984]

I've only done it once three years ago using Dry Erase laminate, it worked perfectly and is still going strong.

 

[MikePro]

it works, and it doesn't.
takes forever to dry, and ruins the lam if you don't get it down quick.

why ask, when you should be trying a sample?​

 

[omgsideburns]

I do it all the time. Work from the middle out and you've gotta squeegee the crap out of it to make sure all the moisture is out or you'll get some clouds. Let it set up for an hour before you cut.

 

[a77]

dumb question... why would you want to apply it wet?

 

[JR's]

dumb question... why would you want to apply it wet?

???
"Big Squeegee" http://www.bigsqueegee.com/

http://youtu.be/KFY7XPZ3wXY

JR

 

[pjfmeister]

it works fine...we have used rapid tac in the past and spray both surfaces and use a hard squeege with a cover so you can push hard to get all the liquid out with one pass...

 

[kanini]

Oh, well you learn something from this forum every day, never thought it was even possible to apply wet. But how do you avoid soaking up the backing paper on the vinyl? Now you got me curious about this, need to try it on Monday instead of the laminator!

 

[a77]

Sorry.. still don't get it.
Why wet? So you can move it around while doing it? What's the advantage?

???
"Big Squeegee" http://www.bigsqueegee.com/

http://youtu.be/KFY7XPZ3wXY

JR

 

[TXFB.INS]

Oh, well you learn something from this forum every day, never thought it was even possible to apply wet. But how do you avoid soaking up the backing paper on the vinyl? Now you got me curious about this, need to try it on Monday instead of the laminator!

getting the backing wet is a PITA, its like wet TP just starts falling apart

Sorry.. still don't get it.
Why wet? So you can move it around while doing it? What's the advantage?

Why do you need to move around? its not like the lamination has lines to match up to the sign, as long as the vinyl is covered then you good to stick it

 

[rfulford]

Wet applying laminate was once suggested to me by my 3M rep for laminating 10' wide flex face vinyl. He mentioned a company that would wet apply 8518 with a 1/8" overlap on all of their panagraphics material. I really did not like the idea and went with a roll on liquid lam.

 

[HulkSmash]

um, i don't care what these guys say.. No Pun.

don't wet apply lamination.

 

[Malkin]

I will sometimes wet apply laminate to a small print, when I dont want to bother changing out the film in my machine. The trick is to tape the print down to your table all the way around firmly. The prevents most of the fluid from getting around to the back side. You will still need to flip it and quickly wipe off any that did though.

While I don't do this often, its never caused a print to fail prematurely.

 

[SignStudent]

When I used to work for someone else he would sometimes wet apply graphics to a substrate without laminate, then wet apply the laminate onto that. Not the ideal way of doing things but it worked okay when we had problems with the laminator.

 

[MikePro]

you always peel the backing before you wet it.

 

[gabagoo]

Tried it once before I had a decent laminator, and the cloudiness took 3 weeks to go away.... If you have a lot of dark colors in the print I wouldn't do it

 

[SIGNTIME]

learn to do it dry... or get the big squeegee or a laminator wet app is a pita once you have dry app down ... i dont wet app anything not even frosted glass