Swingline Thermal Laminator Machine, Inspire Plus, 12 Inch, Quick Warm-Up, 3 or 5 Mil, with 5 Laminating Pouches for Home, Office and Classroom, White/Gray (1701867)

Edit: I had this laminator for almost three years. I never had a problem with it. It wouldn’t jam or struggle. It was fantastic. A coworker asked to borrow it. I explained that it was a wonderful machine, and the only way to really mess it up was by loading the open end of the lamination sleeves in first. Just before she killed it, a student heard her talking to herself. “What was it she said? It probably doesn’t matter.” It did matter. She killed it.So, that is this little guy’s Achilles heel. Good to know. The coworker bought me another one, and it is just as sturdy as the first. My only recommendation is to label how to use it on the actual machine if you will allow others to use it. I added the previously deducted star due to how long-lasting this guy is.Original Review: The woman who runs the lamination machine at my school isn’t the greatest at it. She often returns items with parts of the lamination bubbling up, or she cuts into the actual thing that was laminated when she is cutting off the extra lamination. There were a few times she laminated the sticky note with my name on it to the actual poster. So I got this. I wanted to be able to not have to go through her for my every lamination need that is larger than a standard piece of paper.It works beautifully! At first, I was impressed at how quickly it heat up only to discover it took the lamination pocket and the paper through the machine without doing anything. I was pretty upset before I discovered there was a “cool” setting. I can’t imagine what that would be used for, but it was good to know the machine wasn’t broken.It actually FIXED the messed up pieces I had laminated through the media center, which was incredibly nice. One poster was a little off track and it messed up the edges. I ran it through again and it smoothed out the edge and was more or less back to the way it needed to be. My old laminator had a tray that would help me line up whatever I wanted laminated prior to running it through. That was the only reason I deducted a star. Overall, a wonderful product!

I bought this for my daughter, an elementary school teacher and she has raved about it! So much better than the smaller one she had before!

I have only used it for a few jobs. but I am very happy with it. I am a teacher and use the school laminator for school stuff, but wanted to buy my own for at home projects with my son. I found this is very easy to use and does a good job. The first time I used it I didn't know I had to stand above the ready light to see it was on. I was watching it from across the room and didn't know why it was taking so long. The second time warming up was much quicker. LOL I felt like it laminated at a good rate. When looking at the time specified in the description i was a little disappointed it wasn't faster, but watching it in person it seems like a good speed to get one paper through and prep the next in time to send that one through.I have not bought a laminator before, but after reading other reviews I chose this one and have been very happy with my purchase!!!

I bought this laminator to protect photos in my picture frames. Sunlight has faded some 10-year old photos so I decided to reprint and laminate them to see if it makes a difference. I also laminated photos in some coasters, which got wet and ruined but reprints are now laminated.This machine is easy to use. Press the hot or cold option (cold for sensitive objects), and wait 5 minutes for it to warm up. In the meantime, put your thing to be laminated between some lamination sheets and make sure there isn't any dust or debris in there. Feed the lamination sheets with the side already sealed in first. Let me repeat: feed in from the side that is already sealed; this is to prevent a potential air bubble at the end.The laminations come out clean with little to no air bubbles. My documents/photos are protected and look great. Recommended.

I primarily bought this to try my hand at using a laser printer and foils. I let the laminator heat up for about 15 minutes. I printed on AstroBrights 65 lb cardstock and Recollections 65 lb black in my laser printer, using a high quality setting (in hopes the ink is more saturated on the paper). I cut the foil to just fit over the printing. I put the foil (colored side facing up) on the cardstock. I put the cardstock it in a folded piece of copy paper and ran it through the machine 3 times. I rubbed the foil over the printed area a little before I peeled it off. It cools very quickly.I was very happy with the results! I had a few tiny specks that didn't adhere, but barely noticeable. Before I placed the foil I noticed that for some reason there were tiny areas of toner missing, so it's possible the spots that didn't adhere was because of my printer (Samsung M2020). It's hard to get good pictures of the foil because it's so reflective, but I posted a few pictures of the first two tries at using foil in this laminator.Update: I wrote this review in 2018 and it's now December 2022. Laminator still works great.

This was a great investment for me. I have two kids that have been in the local newspaper through sports. I had a stack of articles that I have wanted to get laminated but never had time to drop off the articles. I decided I would buy one myself and be able to laminate when I had time. It works amazing. I did purchase the Swingline Thermal Laminating Pouches in Letter size in the 100 pack @ 3MIL thickness. I wish I would have done this a couple of years earlier to have the articles in better condition. I have my stack 1/2 done and it looks fantastic and know that I can put them in binders for them to look back on. The cost was very reasonable with the high quality it produces.

After finally finding it (not Sellers fault, neighbor had collected it when it was raining) works great, takes a bit to warm up but not bad I have a tendency to walk off and forget. I've only used it once so far so good