Fellowes Venus Economy Foil Laminator Starter Kit with 2 Foil Colors and Pouch Carrier

Welcome to MyBinding video. Today we take a look at the Venus2 125, a 12 1/2 inch pouch laminator by Fellowes. The Venus2 125 is a laminator for frequent use in a variety of applications. It has a 12 1/2 inch throat opening, so pouches up to 12 inches wide are no problem. The controls in the Venus2 are right here on the top and they're touchpad - power, as well as going from heat to cold, it auto senses the thickness of your document and runs it through appropriately. The Venus2 does not require a carrier, however here at MyBinding, we encourage you to use a carrier to prolong the life of your product. Your laminating projects go in the front and come out the back on the finishing tray. It can handle from 3 to 10 mil in pouch thickness and is great for hot and cold documents so you can preserve photos and pictures, as well as laminating and securing important documents. It can warm up in little as 30 seconds and is great for small and large projects. Plenty of tools to help you in the front to guide you through the process. Audible beeps will help you know when things are ready to go and your project options are simply limitless. That's the Fellowes Venus2 125 pouch laminator. For more demos, reviews and how to's, check out MyBinding.com.

This is How to Foil Laminate!

For those who are new to this, we’ll first go over the basic steps. We also highly encourage everyone to view our written knowledge base article.

Here’s the supplies you’ll need: your laminating foil, some scissors, a project printed with a laser printer, a carrier, and finally a pouch laminator.

First, open your carrier and place your project inside. Now take your foil and cut it appropriately to cover the correct portion of your project.

Take that piece and rest it in its position.

If you have other colors and places to fill, continue to do so.

It’s important to cover the printed portions of your project that you do not want to foil. If you don’t then some of the print will transfer onto your carrier and make a mess on other later projects.

Now insert the carrier into the laminator. It’s best to either hold or get something to keep the project flat so that the foil does not fall from within the carrier.

When it’s done, remove the carrier from the back, open it up and proceed to peal off the foil and uncover your project.

Now chances are you’ll see spots in your foiled project, which means we have to go over steps for quality control.

I wish there was an easy one-and-done way to get the best quality—but there are so many factors in play that it’s going to take some trial and error on your part.

So first, when printing you have to print on a laser printer, no other printers will work. The foil adheres best with solid black projects—if you have colors, convert them to black or don’t laminate them. This also means no gradients or opaqueness. And it’s best to use vector based images—texts are vector based, and programs like Adobe Illustrator create vector based art.

The smoother the paper, the better your results. And as long as you can print it in your printer you will be able to foil it.

For choosing a laminator, it should have temperature controls for 10 mil, but preferable one that you can set the actual temperature manually to 300 degrees fahrenheit or higher. Slow down your laminator, too. And make sure the throat of your laminator is large enough to fit your projects!

When you choose not to foil part of your project, cover it with paper to avoid ink transferring onto your carrier and ruining future projects. And we’ve found that for some reason, some foils just adhere better than others.

Not every printer toner provides the best results. Some toners adhere better than others, and printers with a high dots per inch(DPI) will provide smoother edges and nicer results.

For serious professional foiling, check out foil fusers and foil stamping machines—these are expensive, commercial usage machines. Follow this information and you should be able to achieve some great looking foil laminated projects!