Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Admit it, wasn't sure how I was going to use this. Never heard of thermal laminators before, but my partner, being very experienced in the graphic arts, suggested that this just might be the ticket for image transfers. Have made transfers using acrylic mediums and plain old packing tape. This item is very lightweight and quite affordable. However, one needs to pay careful attention to the directions before using. Be sure to switch to proper pouch thickness (3 ml or 5 ml) and allow to heat up fully BEFORE feeding your photos through. Also, make sure switch is on OFF before plugging in unit. And make sure the light is GREEN before sending pouch through pouch entrance. You get two 3 ml pouches with this. Pouches run about $12.99 per 100 (on Amazon). These pouches are fed through the unit, and they in fact provide the gloss that is thermally sealed onto your picture. Do NOT cut the pouch to alter it's size. Most will want to use this for their photographs, business/greeting cards or flyers. Place the photograph in the pouch, centering it within the pouch, leaving a quarter inch perimeter around your image, while avoiding all edges of the pouch. When the unit is fully heated up indicated by the green light, gently feed the pouch through the pouch entrance. The folded side of the pouch is the part that feeds directly into the slot. Helps to use some magazines or books to prop UNDER the pouch so it feeds completely flat and directly parallel to the pouch entrance without any tension or pulling to avoid any wrinkling. My first try resulted with a very strong wrinkle and certainly you want to avoid that. Be careful when handling image directly after laminating, especially the edges. They can get pretty hot. If you want to create image transfers with fashion magazine images (which is what I use this for), put your photo (cut to fit within the parameters of an 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper) and place on a blank piece of paper or preferably cardstock for better support. Place photo FACE UP onto the backing sheet and gently slide into the pouch, folded corner up top, all the while centering it and avoiding edges of pouch. Feed into the slot as outlined above. Recommend you send image through two times for transfers (using same pouch). When laminated image has cooled off, remove backing sheet and place in a tray with a quarter inch of water, image face up. After 5 minutes, remove from water and simply peel off the paper. Caution: As this unit gets hot and the resulting laminates even hotter, absolutely not suggested for use by children. No instructions come with the unit, but found the link for the PDF of the manual (see below). Sent PDF to my Kindle device (I-Pad), and that was the easiest way to go. Happy laminating or image transferring! http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/A1DnkIZMgrS.pdf