Does anyone here mount their own prints and use a cold roll laminator for the task? It seems like a lot of the bigger print places around town do this but charge quite a lot per image for the mount (usually close to 200 dollars for a 40x30). Does anyone have any suggestions in terms of machines? My typical prints are between 15x20 and 40x30.
See:
https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=97552.0Check the videos of Zenith lamination materials, equipment and methods on Youtube, I learned something there. My version of the methods described there follows here, you could skip this part.
Since the thread in 2015 I changed the spindle the adhesive roll is supported on and winds off when the film is applied. Pro Laminators usually have a metal tube where with air pressure the roll is clamped on so the roll stays straight over its length. I made something similar but the roll is clamped by adding a wide elastic strip in between that is stretched when the roll is put over the spindle and loosened when in the right position so the strip becomes thick again, giving enough friction to fix the roll. That spindle + roll turns on an thick walled alu axle with several plastic bearings along its length. Total ridged enough that the roll's core will not bend.
I always check first that the 2mm thick HIPS sheet is just touched by the orange upper roller and travels straight over the table, adjust one of the two bearing's heights (so pressure) of the upper roller so that path becomes straight. That done there remains the issue how parallel the film core is to the orange rollers, I added an adjustment part to one side of the top axle. Over time I hardly have to adjust that, some side way shift is possible for the roll + core on that axle, so no side way stress gets into the film before it reaches the HIPS sheet. Getting the first part of the adhesive film evenly stretched over its width and parallel to the rollers is the tricky part, I use painter's tape to fix the film to the upper roller and check whether the split from the roll is parallel to the roll itself. Then insert a 8" long but 50" wide sheet first to take up the first edge of the adhesive film and check how even the film applies, after that the longer sheets. Cutting them loose one after the other at the other side of the laminator. That gives me adhesive HIPS sheets with a backing paper for any time I need to laminate a print.
Applying the printed paper on the HIPS sheet later on is easy. HIPS sheet cut to a size 1" wider on the dimensions than the finished print will be. Back paper folded say 1.5" backwards, print edge flattened on that adhesive strip with 1/4" still adhesive at the edge of the HIPS sheet, silk paper added to the 1/4" strip so the laminated print also will have a thin protective paper on top while laminated and in further cutting steps. Edge inserted between the orange rollers, silk paper and print laid over the top axle or upper orange roller, laminate with little pressure. Qimage Ultimate printed corner marks are still visible through the silk paper, with a board cutter the roughly 0.5" edge strips are cut off just within the marks, silk paper comes free after the last cut. With two extra sheets of thick soft paper and the laminated print in between the bond can be increased running that sandwich through the rollers.
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
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