Printing plant labels-?laminating

[gingernut]

Hi oh learned ones.

I've been printing some plant labels, for some stuff I'm selling on markets/car boot sales. They look pretty good, but it's a bit of a pain having to remove them prior to watering the goods. And the substrate I'm using, (Staples A4 test and graphics 120g/m2), is quite expensive. And they curl in the sun.

I think the solution could be to use lamination. I don't know much about the process, I'm looking to print (about) business card size, and then stick to a cane/plant marker.

Is the process simple?
Are the pouches interchangeable between machines?
Is one machine better than another?
What's the estimated unit cost?

Cheers,

ginge

[mixture]

gingernut,

Lamination is pointless if you're going to take scissors to your laminated pouch as you'll loose your water resistance !

Suggest you investigate alternative substrates (e.g. Avery make heavy duty labels, otherwise Dymo might make something for their label machines, or look at one of those portable labelling machines).

[gingernut]

thanks mix, was hoping not to cut anything, can small stuff be individually laminated cheaply? (and easilly)

[jimtherev]

On the other hand, there are business-card sized laminating pouches out there, which one uses in a 'carrier' - i.e. a folded flat piece of card to keep them organised. Some suppliers also do a machine-independent laminator - expensive if you are doing a lot... it's just sticky transparent plastic separated by release paper until you use it.

[ShyTorque]

We have a simple lamination machine at home, I use it quite a bit and it's quite effective.

The two sheets of laminate film are simply bonded together with a heat sensitive melt glue, the rollers heat up and melt it as the sheet is pulled through.

If you space the labels apart on an A4 sheet (I suggest 8 or 10 mm spaces) the two sheets of laminate should bond together between them so you can cut between the labels and still retain a waterproof border. My advice is to use the hottest / slowest setting on the machine but you will probably need to experiment.

[A A Gruntpuddock]

Using A4 pouches as above is probably cheapest but it can be a nuisance getting all the bits laid out and keeping them from moving as you lift it into the laminator.

And then you have to trim them individually as they don't usually line up, so you can't just use a guillotine.

This advert shows the individual pouch sizes available - LAMINATINGPOUCHES.CO.UK - FOR THE BEST DEALS ONLINE IN POUCH LAMINATE SUPPLIES

Much easier to adjust the size of your label to suit the pouches than the other way round.

Takes a while for the laminator to heat up so it is best to do them in large batches.

I use a cheap laminator from LIDL and bought all my supplies through the 'net - no problems.

[Bushfiva]

I use standard waterproof ink onto waterproof stickers, and attach them to plastic plantpot labels. 10 stickers per A4 sheet.

[gingernut]

thanks for the advice ;-)