Laminating prints

[Kanvas Keepsakes]

Hello everyone.  I've always been interested in learning how to mount photo's onto foam board and laminate as well.  I know absolutely nothing on laminating.  I've never done it but would like to learn.  I saw a local FB Marketplace ad with someone selling this used laminator locally and was wondering if this was something that would be capable of laminating a photo mounted on a foam board.  Would this be an ok machine to learn on?  I know there's a lot of experts in here that do some great work on mounting and laminating.  Want to pick your brains a little bit.  Thanks in advanced for the advice. 

Here's the link to my Google Photo's album with 3 pictures of the machine.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/oPAdUGrZAfiZ9MTK9

And if it's a good one to learn on, the guy wants $150 for it.  Is that an ok price??

[dgberg]

I will jump in since no one else has. First off although I know nothing about your referenced 27" laminator you cannot get anything now days for $150. I would get it just to play with and see how it works. Is it a true hot roll laminator or a heat assist?
Getting the proper laminate material is key to getting good results.
If you laminate canvas it takes a heat laminate.
I started with Seal's Print Mount Ultra, the satin version which is very close to a gloss.
We have since moved to Drytac's Satinex Perforated Heat Laminate, considerably cheaper than the Seal product.
Just under .50 a sq. ft. I have two machines that can apply it.
A Seal 44" hot roll laminator which does a good job but we do 20 different canvas sizes and the waste factor is too high.
We have a new Knight Maxi Press 32x42 for metal prints. We set the temperature down to 200 degrees for 4 minutes. Lay the canvas in the press face up. Cover with a sheet of satinex we cut off the roll. Cover with foam pad and press for the 4 minutes. A beautiful job. 10 times more protection than any of the spray laminates and I have tried almost all of them. No more ink rub off, no more cracked corners when stretching. Great stuff!

[aaronchan]

If you want to laminate a print and mount it on a foamboard, first of all, you will need to laminate the print, then you mount the laminated print onto the foamboard.
Laminate film is important, but since there are too much, go to a shop with a proper rep is a must. Otherwise, you will need to spend a lot on the film and time to find which one is right for you.
Also, I don't do hot lamination, cold lamination is very good these days.

aaron

[dgberg]

Have you tried cold laminating to canvas, does't work for me. Cold is fine for all fine art and photo papers but for canvas it takes heat and only several specialized laminates. Foamboard is too soft to run through a laminator. For small prints you can laminate by hand anyway, no laminator required. We use gator board for all sizes.

[Richard.Wills]

Set the rollers to the correct height, and you can run foam board (Kappa, and Foam-X) through a laminator all day. Running 5mm foam board, set the height using 5mm PVC or polyprop. Back off the pressure a touch, and odds are you're good to go.

Canvas, yeah, that really does take a bit of heat, and deeply textured fine art papers can benefit from a bit as well.

[dgberg]

I guess I wasn't clear, my fault. My issue is with foam cores softness. Do anything more than breath on it and it is toast. So we just don't offer it.
Most of my photography enthusiasts prefer gator mounts as they can be hung/sold without being framed. Don't get me wrong gatorboards edges are fragile as well. I guess foam core would be fine for smaller sizes as many use it.

[Kanvas Keepsakes]

Thank you all for your replies.  I print on SSMC and coat with an HPLV gun using LexJet's Satin coating.  3 good coats, horizontal, then vertical, then horizontal again, works for me almost 100% of the time.  SSMC is super flexible and stretches with no cracks like a champ.  I'd have no reason to try and laminate canvas.  I'm just struggling with trying to offer clients more of an option other than canvas prints.  I'm trying to sway photographers to come to me instead of ordering online but most top companies online offer next day shipping at super low pricing.  I started to print on metallic paper to offer my clients but at the same time I tried to match the online pricing.  Horrible mistake.  A photographer ordered like 10 5x7's, 3 8x10's, and 2 16x20's.  My profit margin for all that work was ridiculously low.  So I stopped printing on photo paper.  I even had one photographer customer tell me not to post his work on my business page because he didn't want his clients to know he was getting his wraps done locally here.  As if that devalued the wraps somehow.  I've compared my work to some of the big online competitors and there's nothing that they do better than I do.  My canvas printing business (which is my side business) is going on almost 7+ years and the customers come once in a while through word of mouth.  Sometimes I go weeks without printing something.  The only difference between the online competition and me is they put dust covers with hanging hardware and I don't.  I leave it open on the back.  Maybe that's what turns off clients?  Who knows.  Lately the only work I'm doing for local photographers are the ones that have a wedding on Saturday and they call me on Wednesday because something happened and they're not going to get the order in on time.  A part of me wants to say "Sorry!  You should have called me first!"  And another part of me is like "Bro!  Business is business!  Make that money!"  How do you all promote and get repeating customers coming back?  Sorry for the long post but I needed to get all this off my chest. 

[dgberg]

I am a one man shop now in my 11th year. I was fortunate to have a 3000 sq. ft. shop right in my back yard when I closed my cabinetry business in 2009.
A little like you this has always been a side business until my retirement from corporate flying in Dec.
The work has always been sporadic with 75% of it coming from 2 local photo clubs.
There are quite a few photographers that print for summer shows and you need to tap into that market if you haven't already.
Although I do not attend meetings regularly I joined both clubs and am a regular sponsor. I donate printing gift certificates for many of their contests.
I also donate the printing prizes for the junior programs they run.
Try running several workshops for the members demonstrating what you do. Don't forget to give all attendees a gift certificate of some sort, you want to get them back.
Lastly my biggest client is a local hospital I met through a contact with the club.
I have now been printing and framing over a 100 large canvas prints a year the last 3 years in a row with more projects on the way.
All of the images are entries from the local club to the hospitals interior designer who makes the final selection.
I only ship about a half dozen pieces a year. So you can see I do not try and compete with any of the online print stores.
It is good to know their prices and try to stay as close as you can and still make a reasonable profit.

[Kanvas Keepsakes]

Thank you, Dan