Banner American PL12A 12-1/4" 4 Roller Pouch Laminator, Heavy Duty Hot & Cold Industrial

I had to buy a laminator for my office and I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't even know exactly how laminators work. So for Part 1 of my review, I'm going to review the product itself. For part 2 of the review, I'm going to explain how to use laminators and how they work.Part 1 (Product Review): The laminator itself is more than anything I asked for. It's got two buttons, "Heat" and "Run." This is nice because there don't seem to be a lot of laminators that let you run the rollers and heating independently. This is nice because running laminating rolling motors tend to be a little noisy so you can turn the "Run" on only when you're laminating. With the "Heat" button, you can leave the machine on standby already heated up and ready to roll (Hehe). The thermometer is conveniently placed on the side of the machine. However the heat adjustment knob is on the bottom of the machine which is kind of inconvenient but at least it's not heavy so it's not too big of a deal. The machine can take at least 4 minutes to heat up and at most 10 minutes, but the green light will let you know when you're ready to laminate. Also, when you heat this thing for the first time, IT'S GOING TO STINK. Don't worry though, it'll eventually go away after a few hours of use and rolling. Right now the stink is practically gone after almost a week of casual use. Now that I think about it, it might be a good idea to just leave the machine heated and rolling for a few hours until the smell settles away. It's a neat machine. One odd thing about getting this machine is that you'll receive it in a box that has a huge label saying that it's incredibly important for you to keep that original box if you ever plan on getting it serviced for its warranty. A little inconvenient to keep that box since it isn't exactly small or anything. A little bothersome and annoying. Overall, the laminator itself does its job perfectly and laminates like a champ. I like it!Part 2 (How laminators work and what you need): I just searched for laminators on Amazon and was clueless on picking out a laminator or how they even worked. I thought laminators worked like printers where you can load it with the plastic coverings and just run whatever you want through it. That's not the case at all. Those plastic casings you use for laminating are called pouches. Like kangaroos. You put the pouch containing your desired item into a folder-like container called a carrier. As far as I understand, all pouches have glue in them and running them through the rollers without protection might leave glue residue on the rollers and damage your machine over time. I suggest always using a carrier, even if your laminating machine says it doesn't need one. The last 4 pictures in my review go through the laminating process. I put my desired item in a pouch, put it in a carrier, and ran it through the machine. That's it. These pouches come in all different sizes. Photo, legal, military card, and standard letter size. One thing I was curious about that couldn't seem to be answered anywhere was if I could laminate an item into a pouch that was larger. For example: I want to laminate a business card with a letter sized pouch. The answer is yes you can. I tried it. However you have to cut off the excess plastic of the pouch and that's a large portion of a pouch wasted.

My wife is very artsy , she got into laminating some of her work but complained about hassles with doing the lam work on the job. I did my research and found this unit (banner pl12a) to be highly respected as a work horse in laminating, so far very happy.

This puppy is heavy construction and not a plastic toy like so many others on offer. Haven't used it much but I am assuming it works as well as the old one I am replacing. (OOPS! There I go again . . . assuming!)

looks good!will try it and seeheavy duty construction-better than any other i have looked atwe'll see how it works out

Nice unit!