laminating a spoke card
 

Any tips or products that work well? Or do y'all just go to Kinko's?

kinko's, pouch laminated.

Also remember to leave 1/8" or so around the edges of the card when you trim it out. Otherwise the laminate will peel very quickly...

Lots of arts&crafts/stationary places sell laminate sheets, you just need to cut to size and stick to sides together with your spoke card in the middle. Some even have presized pockets for photos that work well. Again you just peel and stick. No heat needed.

Used to have one spoke card made this way from 1996 in my wheel - though sadly it disappeared this week.

Almost made it 10 years...damn.

clear packing tape. tape both sides and then trim

i use packing tape. like someone said, leave room on the edges.

i had a laminated one that recently died largely because of nasty ass road conditions eating away at it. it was pretty light lamination though, so light it was hard to stick in the spokes.

kinkos pouch lam in the self serve area is the jam... if they're busy, its free

i sadly agree.

but normally i laminate at home. you can buy the laminating sheets for the machines and then just use an iron. it works amazingly well, just practice on some scrap first. remember to use the cardboard they supply to help the heat. after making 2 sets of 40 cards for races, you get really good at it.

Pouch lamenating sucks.
I'm not sure what kind I got, but whatever it is there was no need for the 1/8inch border around it.
No need for the excess border.
Ask your local kinkos for their options.

there has to be some border (certain laminates can get it pretty slim), otherwise there is no seal. i find that pouch holds a lot better to being smashed in between spokes and getting blasted by road-ass every day.

Say it with me now, kids:

"BLASTED BY ROAD-ASS"

:)

Mine has no boarder.
The edge of the paper has a thin layer of plastic on it, but no empty boarder.

f dat noise, go score some baseball card holders, the bendable kind, then just glue the openning shut. shoo, you probably gots some up in yo attic, or hellz, go slap some kid on yo block and snatch his, if he snitches, hit him with a brick!

all my spoke cards die. cmwc, monstertrack, etc. the only one that's still holding in is kingofthefv(kingstreets. that's printed on plastic. anyone know how you do that?

shut up

i used to work at kinkos, you don't know what you're talking about.

kinkos has either roll laminate (only full serve) or pouch lam (self or full serve).

roll lam is thinner, thus less durable. pouch lam is MUCH thicker and much more durable (i.e. ID cards, ID name tags, etc). pouch is a bit more expensive, but a lot more durable. you make the choice.

edge sealing is very necessary, especially if your design was printed on an inkjet printer. if it is inkjet printed and you don't edge seal, your paper will get wet on the inside and your design will bleed like a bombsite boy. offset printed designs or laser printers won't have as many problems if you don't edge seal, but it will eventually de-lam as the paper dissolves from moisture.

thank you for your time. i am wasted.

You worked at Kinkos? My condolences...
Would you like me to send you one of my cards so you can see for yourself.

sure. PM me.

i know exactly hat yo'ure saying - both sides are laminated, but that doesn't keep moisture away from your paper.

i actually loved the kinkos job. my location had a lot of my friends working there, so it was a pretty good work environment and i learned a ****load of my production skills there that i carried onto other jobs in prepress, printing and design.

kinkos - big pouch lam. THICK and stiff, got 4 spoke cards to a sheet with 3/16" borders (1/8" too skinny, 1/4" too thick). $2.70

Make me.

MLPROJECT is correct, I usta work at kinkos about 8 years ago

pouch lame is tough, you need some border

the heat will keep it together even without border, but it will soon split apart--you can run through lam machine again, but it will eventually split again

Damn, how many of us ex kinkoids are there on here?

Never worked there, but I've got a bunch of those old blue counters..

add me to the ex-kinkoids

color key-op
+1 for pouch lam + 1/8 border.

in louisville it was a total scene shop for kids that hooked up the job to make **** for free, ie flyers for their bands. at least 20-30 of us over the years.

scott richter (sunspring, metroschifter) even put out a 7" of a docutech running...

I've always wanted to sample some of the sounds those machines make and use them in some industrial music. Nowadays, I just wish they were a little quieter because I'm going deaf. At least I'm running the color machines (iGen, 6060) and I'm in a different room than the presses and the docutechs...

You can't really get away with as much free stuff at Kinkos anymore, I don't think (I can do a lot at my current shop, though.) I know at least one guy that I used to work with who was always hooking people up on the third shift ended up getting caught and owing a lot of money. Not sure if he's paying it back or not, but he's working here as a bike messenger instead now...

ex kinko's
ex copy central (x2)
ex non-chain copy shops (x3)

copy shops are good times...

Yeah, but they don't pay crap. I got pretty much a 50% raise when I moved to a real print shop's digital department...

one more for the list of ex-kinkos employees

no border on the lam just means the plastic is melted to the face of the paper, the edges aren't protected from peeling or moisture. last lasts for a while and looks nice, but it is not durable in the long term.