I've run better than 1000 lineal feet and over 300 prints in the past few months using the Daige EZ Laminator...I wasn't looking forward to having to spray all this canvas with an HVLP spray system with booth. I looked into power laminators that generally available were expensive and too small. Rolling was too slow and with the 30x40 and 40x50 canvases that I was going to produce, it was neither efficient to even enough for my project.
So I went to Google, found the Daige site and their video online and it looked promising. I asked my canvas supplier and he had used this with good results. Even at retail, the price was reasonable and on eBay it was even better to I bought one.
Like any new tech, it will take a little practice to get a good coating.
Set up takes about 5 minutes and you'll need a couple of banquet tables, a graduated beaker, a strainer, and plastic to cover your work surface, a lab coat and gloves to protect you and your clothing.
I'm using the ClearStar liquid laminate, a water-based laminate. I found that if I add 20% distilled water, the coating is a little more even, but your results may vary.
The Daige coats both sides (like a flood varnish), but the squeegee keeps the back relatively dry. If you are careful, the surface is pretty even and consistent for about 90-95 percent of my prints. Occasionally, I get a little unevenness and I' use a roller to even it out. For a few, I may need to re-coat to even it out and then I usually just use a foam paint roller with the laminate and keep rolling until it looks pretty even.
I'll coat, lay the print flat on the table and then add a wooden dowel at each end with wooden cloths pins, then hang it up in my garage and a cloths line. They are dry in about 15-20 minutes in the winter and now that it's summer, they dry even faster.
As you coat, you need to keep the tray in the Daige topped off. I usually add laminate after every 10-12 30x40 canvases.
When you print, you need to add 3-4 inches at the leading edge of your canvas and at least an inch at the trailing end for handling. I usually gang up several prints on a page if I'm running less than a single 20x30 on 24 inch canvas.
Basically, it's like a darkroom scene from the cinema, with prints hanging on a cloths line. By using dowels at the top and bottom, the prints hang more flatly and don't curl and then stick to one another before they are dry.
In most cases (unless there is unevenness), one coat is enough.
When I'm done, I simply strain the used laminate back into a clean jug. It takes about 2-2.5 quarts to fill my 50-inch Daige. Cleanup usually takes about 30 minutes. Using the waterbase ClearStar, the cleanup is simply lots of water. The laminate will coat your machine by the end of a couple-hour session and it will look like a candle. The main thing you need clean is the roller and the squeegee. Since mine was second-hand, it took a little more effort the first couple of cleanings to get it pretty well cleaned-up. Now that that is done, clean-up doesn't take quite as long.
Unless I'm coating larger prints or fewer than 3-4 20x30 prints, I'll simply run a foam roller and laminate in a tray and then roll until the coating looks even then hang using the dowels and cloths pins.