An Introduction To Mounting With Your Roll Laminator

One of the best ways to create eye-catching and helpful visual aids is by using mounting boards with your roll laminator. Luckily, using mounting boards is easy. This article will fill you in on everything you need to know.

If you want to use mounting boards, you're going to need a roll laminator that can handle them. Most of the lower end school laminators won't work with these supplies, unfortunately. However, there are plenty of machines that will. To figure out if your laminator can do mounting, look at it to find out if you can gap the rollers. The machine might even have a mounting board setting you can use. If you determine that your device can work with mounting boards, you can continue.

There are three ways to use mounting boards. Here's a quick rundown of them:

1. You can use pre-treated boards that already have adhesive applied to them. It's easy to use these supplies but they're not recommended for archival use. Also, it can be difficult to find boards that are the right thickness, color, and/or size. You might need to hunt for a bit to find the right supplies for your needs.
2. If you want, you can pre-treat your boards with your roll laminator. To do this, you'll need mounting adhesive on the top roller and nothing on the bottom one. Feed the board through the machine but be careful when doing so. It's easy to get adhesive all over the place which can be rather messy.
3. Finally, you can put a roll of adhesive on the bottom roller and a roll of overlaminate on the top one. You run your document through the machine and then carefully apply it to a board. (This method basically turns your document into a giant sticker.) Pulling this off can be challenging. You need to get the tension just right to prevent curling. However, if you use an adhesive and overlaminate with similar melting temperatures, the process is a bit easier.

Once your board or document is ready, you can begin mounting it. Peel back about an inch of the release liner and attach your item(s) to it. After you do this, make sure the machine is operating at a low temperature (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit) and run the board through it. The release liner will come off as the board moves through the machine. When the board comes out, trim away any excess if necessary and admire your work. That's all there is to it. If you have any questions, be sure to let us know. We'll be glad to help you through the process. Good luck!

If you have any other questions or comments about this article please feel free to
email us at sales@mybinding.com or call us at 1-800-944-4573

Written by Jeff McRitchie
©2011 www.MyBinding.com