Laminating a map for 'dry erase' purposes....

[MiToVo]

... and/or general decoration purposes.

I've been thinking lately that, for the ease of easily/quickly iterating on things like zone lines and such on my world map, it might be a worthwhile idea to get a printout of it laminated and/or mounted... this way I can use dry-erase markers in order to easily and non-destructively work out ideas.

My options, I figure, are either to buy the materials and do it myself (I'm guessing some kind of laminate, a board of some kind, spray adhesive... and lots of patience would come in to play)... or bring it to an office supply place and ask them to set it up for me (I'm guessing an Office Depot or Staples should offer a service like that).

I'm looking to create something around 24" x 24"; large enough to give me space to draw and/or write.. but not so much that it's unwieldy or annoying to deal with.

My question,for anyone who may have done this, is which way you'd recommend going about it? I'm not crazy about the idea of having to make sure everything is laid out cleanly, the map is neatly glued to the mat, and that the laminate doesn't have bubbles (I have very little patience for such stuff).. but if the cost difference is that great, I'd probably still opt for it.

Just kinda curious what I'm getting myself into if I choose to do it myself...

Any insight/opinions/suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks!

[Chick]

I'd say call Staples and other such places near you and ask the price. Purchasing all the equipment and supplies to laminate things yourself costs more than you might expect.

One reasonable alternative is to purchase some clear adhesive vinyl or kitchen drawer/cabinet liner or contact paper, and simply apply it to the surface of your map. You would have to be very careful, since one mistake would ruin the print, but it's cheap. You might have to hunt to find 24" widths, though.

My guess is that for 24"x24", having it done will be your best choice.

[markem]

Here are my experiences:

1. Large area laminating can be done but it usually is expensive. Most businesses charge by the square foot. So a 24" x 24" area is four feet of laminate. If you have ever gone to a convention that is fairly large you would have seen people laminating maps for people. I got ten maps done in this way cheaply because at the convention they charged by the linear foot. So a 50% off for your 24"x24" map.

2.It is really inexpensive to do letter sized laminating. You can buy a cheap laminator and then get good laminating pouches and they will turn our wonderful. I bought a Scotch laminator (a fairly cheap at $25.00 laminating machine. It has only got two settings : low and high. Low is ok but to really do the laminating I always set it on high. Then it is just a single pass laminating machine rather than on low which can take as many as three passes through the machine. I use the Oregon Laminator pouches. These have glue on the inside that liquifies and adheres to the surface of whatever it is you are sending through the machine. Don't worry about overflow of the glue. It is just a microscopie portion of glue over the inside surface of the pouches. I've never had any issues of excess glue.

A note about the Oregon Laminator Pouches: I have no idea WHY this happens - but all I can say is that the colors I used on my printout really POP when sent through the laminating machine with the Oregon Laminator Pouches. The ones from Scotch themselves suck. Avery's pouches are not all that great. In fact, of the fifteen brands I tried out - only the Oregon Pouches have a 100% usage, no bubbles, gives a glossy (almost glass) look to the finished product, and just are great.

I now have an entire set of laminated dungeon passageways and about sixty other items I've printed, laminated, and the cut out. I even went so far as to buy a cutting machine but finally decided that just using a pair of scissors was faster and better.

For a backing on my laminated items I used FrostKing's peel and stick insulation tape. However, the tape is usually about 1/2 an inch thick and provides a nice foam rubber backing that grips the surface of a table, box, or whatever else you put it on to. HOWEVER, in my searching for a great backing to my laminated items I figured out that plain old duct tape works really well and is very cheap too. All you have to do is to cut a strip of duct tape to match the laminated item and apply it to the back of the lamination. The tape sticks to the lamination and you get a rough surface for the back of your laminated item. The rough surface keeps it from moving around a lot just like the FrostKing tape. Now. I'm not saying coat the entire back of your laminated project. Instead, you only need a piece for one side and another piece for the other side. (Or maybe just one down the center.) So basically, just something to keep the laminated item from slipped or sliding around.

The nice thing about using duct tape instead of the FrostKing tape is that you can fit all of your laminated dungeon tiles (or maps if they are done on a piece of letter sized paper and then laminated) into a plain manila folder. They don't weigh a lot so you actually can just carry things around with you. Further, if you use duct tape but wanted to make dungeon walls or doors - you can cut slots into the flooring part and add a bit on to the walls so you have the tabs that would go through the slots, and you can build a 3D dungeon hallway or room. You can read up on all of this at the Cardboard Heroes website. I think it is Cardboard Warriors. I used to be fairly active there before the hackers took me out of going to the site. I posted an entire set of panels you can print for a dungeon.

[MiToVo]

Heya, chick and Mark,


Thanks for your feedback!

Some really good advice in there. I wasn't even aware you could get a laminating machine for that cheap.

In my case, I think for the world map, I'd need something bigger, so I have enough room to write stuff in, across the whole map.

I *may* be able to get away with using the normal paper sized route for individual dungeons - especially where multiple floors are concerned... Towns, as well. So that's a good option to consider for that.

Hmm.. Quite likely I'll end up using both approaches in some manner.

Food for thought!

Thanks for the info/advice!

[Diamond]

I've sung the praises of these guys before: http://www.bannersonthecheap.com/

You can get all different sizes of sturdy vinyl banners for pretty unbelievable prices. You can opt to have them install brass grommets or plastic cleartabs for hanging on your wall also. All you do is just upload your art file, customize your placement, and pick a size and mounting options. I just mocked-up a 2x2 foot vinyl banner with grommets for $16.37 plus tax and shipping. You can use dry-erase pens on them, and they also clean easily with soap and water since they're industrial-grade vinyl and meant to be used outside.

One word of warning: make sure the file your're using is very high quality, like over 350-400 pixels per inch, otherwise, the print can look grainy and pixellated.

[Midgardsormr]

You might also look into the services provided by our own GamerPrinter: http://www.gamer-printshop.com/

Although it looks like his order page might be out of service right now. I'm sure you can get pricing by email or PM, though.

[Chashio]

What about buying a sheet of acrylic at a local building supply store (I recently found some in Lowes) or buy a cheap poster frame at a craft/supply store like AC Moore. I'm not sure how a dry erase marker would work on acrylic but I imagine it would do fine. I'd think that would be easier than laminating, and you can reuse it later.

[CryHavoc2006]

It's only $12 to laminate a 24"x36" print at Staples here in Illinois. It would be less for a smaller print.

[markem]

I've sung the praises of these guys before: http://www.bannersonthecheap.com/
One word of warning: make sure the file your're using is very high quality, like over 350-400 pixels per inch, otherwise, the print can look grainy and pixellated.

I hate to burst your bubble - but they ONLY print at 150dpi. These are the people I used to print the map for my friend. I had it at 600dpi and it came all grainy. So I talked with them about it and they said "We only print at 150dpi which is fine for standard banners". I DO recommend them for first draft or if you don't mind 150dpi output. They are very fast in the turn-around time. But there are a lot of other places that will print at a higher dpi. I found one place that did cloth. Unfortunately, I forget the company's name. But they also do scarfs and that is what I used to print a game board on. In this way the board could be folded and put into a really small box. I loved to see people's faces when this little tiny box produced a 3'x3' board. They were always going "Wow!" For my game pieces I used floor tile as the backing. The problem with cheap floor tile is that the glue will turn to water in high humidity. It really made me appreciate those Ultraviolet printers. A good UV printer can print onto any surface and the ink won't come back off. HOWEVER - If the surface is flexible - it will crack and peel. (I mean like a rubber ball.)

A UV printer and a laser cutter printer are the two things you need in order to produce a lot of things. So far - I only have the laser cutter. Still saving for the UV printer.

[markem]

Acrylic: I tried this but found that I was just not able to cut it to fit a frame and when I took it to Texas Art Supply it was way too expensive to do this. Maybe MiToVo will have better luck than me.

MiToVo: Have you ever thought of making a book of your world? If you put it in to Photoshop/Gimp/whatever and cut it up in to 8"x10.5" sheets - that would give you a half inch border on all four sides. Since lamination pouches come 8.5"x11" (actually, I think they are a little bigger so the letter sized paper can fit into them) what you do is to slide the page of your world over to one side, do the lamination, and now you have an inch of clear lamination that you can hole punch and put into a notebook, folder, or whatever. Then you just flip through them to the area everyone is at. You also gain the back of the page to write notes on. If you do so with dry erase markers then you can remove old notes that no longer apply.