Laminating your documents, photographs, and
artwork is a great way to preserve your work so it can withstand a lot
of handling. Whether you use a pouch or roll laminator, at some point
you're going to probably have to trim some excess laminate from your
items.This article will help you decide which tool would be best for your needs.
Laminating your documents, photographs, and
artwork is a great way to preserve your work so it can withstand a lot
of handling. Whether you use a pouch or roll laminator, at some point
you're going to probably have to trim some excess laminate from your
items. There are a few different tools you can use to do this including
scissors, Zippy knives, rotary trimmers, guillotine cutters, and
automated trimmers. This article will help you decide which tool would
be best for your needs. That said, here's what you need to consider when
trimming your laminated materials....
The size of your documents. This is a
really important consideration because it makes sense to choose certain
implements depending on your document's size. For example, if you're
dealing with smaller things such as business cards and snapshots, using
scissors or Zippy knives would be appropriate, but an automated trimmer
would probably be overkill. Likewise, it would be time-consuming and
inconvenient to use shears to trim a banner or poster. This is largely
based on common sense, so be sure to choose accordingly.
How your materials are shaped.
Shape needs to be taken into account when deciding what's the best way
to trim your documents. Automated and rotary trimmers as well as
guillotine cutters are great if you need a perfectly straight line, but
they won't cut it (no pun intended) if you need a curved line or if the
item is otherwise irregularly shaped. So you'll want to take a good look
at your materials see which tools will give you the results you need.
The thickness of your materials.
The third thing you need to think about is how thick your items are.
For example, if you decided to laminate a mounting board, you're going
to need something that can cut through a relatively thick material. A
good choice in this instance would be a mat cutter. (A rotary cutter or
pair of scissors definitely wouldn't work.) Also, items that have been
laminated with thin film (i.e. 3 mil) might be difficult to cut with a
guillotine cutter or rotary trimmers, but things will go just fine if
you use a Zippy knife. You might want to experiment with different tools
to see which ones make trimming as easy as possible.
Trimming is really the final step in the laminating process, so
you're going to want to make sure you do a good job of it. This will
help you end up with materials that are not only protected but also look
great and convey a professional image. Thus, you need to take the size,
shape, and thickness of your items into consideration when selecting
which cutting tool to use. If you do this, picking the right cutting
tool will be easy and it will help you finish the job beautifully. (It
can also help you save some time, which is always helpful.) Keep these
things in mind the next you find yourself needing to trim excess
laminate from your work.
Jeff McRitchie is the Director of Marketing for MyBinding.com.
He regularly writes articles, reviews, and blog posts on topics related
to book binding, laminating, paper shredding, and office equipment.
More than 2,500 of his articles have been published in thousands of
locations on the Internet. If you're looking for information about laminators his articles are a great place to start.
