We recommend leaving at least a 1/8" border around laminated documents. This will allow the plastic to properly adhere both to itself and to your document; if you trim your project flush to the edge of the document, moisture and dirt can get between the lamination and damage your document, and the film can eventually start peeling away.

We recommend a rotary trimmer, a zippy cutter, a craft knife (like X-acto), or of course, a regular pair of scissors.

Heat wrinkles form when the film hasn't cooled properly before coming off the back of the machine. You want your laminated document to cool below the melt temperature of the film while it's still being pulled tight between the rollers—this is the main reason that laminators have fans on them—to cool the item, not to cool the machine down.The fix for heat wrinkles is to slow the machine speed down slightly so that the item has a chance to cool before exiting the back of the machine.

A mil is one-thousandth of an inch (0.001"or 1/1000"). The thickness of a single layer of laminating film (including both the film and the adhesive) is measured in mils. Because most lamination applications are double-sided, the actual thickness of the film is double (so a document laminated in a 3 mil pouch will actually be 6 mils thick). The smaller the mils, the thinner and less rigid the film once it's been melted.

A laminating carrier is a sheet of specially-coated heavy white card stock folded on one side and open on the other three sides. The item to be laminated is placed inside a laminating pouch and then placed inside the carrier before being fed through the pouch laminator. Not all pouch laminators require carriers, so consult your machine's user manual to determine whether yours needs a carrier or not. The carrier helps prevent adhesive from getting onto your machine's rollers.

If your pouch gets stuck inside your machine, try running a carrier through the machine. Many times, this will push the stuck pouch out of the rollers.

For cleaning and all other questions, we always recommend that you refer first to your user manual for information specific to your machine. In general, we recommend that you run a sheet of 80lb cover stock or an empty carrier through your machine while it's still hot, if you're just needing to pull adhesive off the rollers. You can also check out our cleaning kit, which includes denatured alcohol, a soft cloth, and a scrubbing pad. Additionally, you can purchase our cleaning erasers which you can use to “erase” adhesive from your machine's rollers. For additional information, you can also check out our blog post “Pouch Laminating: Perfect Results Every Time!”which has information on cleaning your pouch laminator.

*Note: Never use a straight edge, razor blade, or X-acto knife to clean your rollers.

Your pouch should be at least 1/8" larger on all four sides than the item you're laminating. We sell specially-sized pouches for business cards and other small items; for larger items, you can use a large laminating pouch and then trim it down to size (again, leaving 1/8"border on each side).

Refer to your laminating machine manual for specific information on temperatures, but in general, you'll run 3 mil pouches at 275º, 5 mil pouches at 285º, 7 mil at 300º, and 10 mil at 340º.

On a 13"pouch laminator, you can laminate 120 large pouches or 300 small pouches per hour

You can tell when temperature adjustments should be made by how your pouches look. If your pouches come out of your machine cloudy, your temperature is too low and you need to turn it up. If your pouches come off your laminating machine wrinkled, bubbled, or curled, your temperature is too high and you need to reduce the heat.