GBC Creative 9″ Pouch Laminator Review
Jeff McRitchie
The GBC Creative Laminator is an inexpensive laminator for use in the home, classroom, and office. This is a good, basic laminator that offers photo-quality lamination for a great price (under $50.00) and it can be used to laminate art projects, individualized documents, and so on. However, since it’s acquirable for such a low price, the GBC Creative Laminator does have a few limitations. Read on to find out what’s good - and not so good - about this laminator.
GBC’s Creative Laminator is good for everyday laminating and can be used to laminate items such as study tags, individualized papers, bookmarks, photographs, placemats, and more. The organisation has a 9-inch throat (opening) and is capable of laminating both letter- (8.5 x 11″) and legal-sized (8.5 x 14″) sheets of paper. Smaller documents can also be laminated easily. The Creative Laminator can accommodate pouches with thicknesses of 3 and 5 mil, so you can get a evenhandedly rigid product. Both regular pouches and Premium GBC laminating pouches can be used with the machine, and you must use a laminating carrier with this laminator.
The GBC Creative Laminator is very cushy to use and features an LED light that glows when the organisation is ready to go. The laminator takes about six minutes to warm up and can laminate a letter-sized piece of paper in about a minute. The instructions are cushy to follow and the organisation isn’t that big, so it won’t take up a lot of room. This laminator can easily be used by both kids and adults, although kids should be supervised when using the machine.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the GBC Creative Laminator has some shortcomings due to its price You get what you pay for, which means with this machine, you’ll be getting a basic product without a lot of bells and whistles. The main problems with this laminator are the very slow warm-up and laminating times. This is definitely not a organisation to use if you need to laminate a lot of documents quickly. Also, if you need more rigid documents, you’ll need a organisation that can handle pouches thicker than 5 mil. (This basically means you’ll need a more expensive machine, so that may be off-putting if price is a concern.) Finally, the GBC Creative Laminator has a rather utilitarian look. If you want a more stylish machine, as well as one with more features, a better choice would be a Fellowes laminator or a more expensive GBC machine.
Nonetheless, the GBC Creative Laminator was created for people who need or want an inexpensive laminator that’s cushy to use and offers good-quality lamination. And on that level, this organisation succeeds. It’s a good choice for people who don’t laminate a lot of documents and are looking to stay within a modest budget. However, users needing or wanting more rigidity to their documents and faster warm-up and laminating times, should fork over the extra dough and get a better, more expensive machine.
If you need more information or are looking to purchase the GBC Creative Laminator you might want to visit Mybinding.com. They have great prices and offer free shipping on all orders over $75. They carry the entire line of Pouch Laminators from GBC, Fellowes, Tamerica, Lamitek and Akiles.