Royal Sovereign 9-Inch Laminator (CS-923)

I bought this laminator for foiling not for laminating as many people have also done so this review is for how it foils.For a foiler it does a great job. I originally had some hiccups when I first started foiling but essentially they were not the fault of the laminator.For reference, I use the machine on the 5mil setting after letting it heat up for about 15-20 minutes.Tips for everyone using this machine for foiling:As stated, people usually put their foil sheet on top of their laser printed design and place it inside a folded a piece of paper to slip into the machine.1.Please make sure (if you can), to feed it fold side first. The first time I used the machine, I fed it in was the fold on the side and it jammed immediately and actually sucked in the entire paper into the machine resulting in me having to open the machine to get it out. Subsequently, it tended to jam anytime I forgot to put everything in folded cover sheet first.2. If your foil is coming out poorly, please test different laser jet printers. The first two printers I used at my husbands work place ended up have sort of poor quality toner and the foil came out splotchy. I ended up borrowing a friends laser printer and also printed on high DPI/best quality/lots of toner use and the results came out a lot clearer. I at first thought my machine wasn't getting hot enough/putting down enough pressure but that isnt the case.3. Do not foil if you have left the machine run for more than 2 hours. The machine itself will work just fine but I have found that if you leave it on to work on your images and then go to foil the machine gets way too hot for the foil. I think the built up heat is just way too much and what I find is that when I pull away the foil it will stick to the laser printed area but other parts of it will have also flaked off and it is a mess to clean up and often I have to throw away my paper.Overall, this is a great machine so far but you have to know how to use it...for things it wasn't intended for :).

This little laminator is awesome! I use it to foil my projects and it works perfect. It is compact so if you don't have a ton of room this is a great option. It has two settings, one for 3mil and one for 5mil and does hot and cold laminating. It heats up quick and works great. It is actually pretty nice looking too. I still haven't used it for actual laminating yet but I have no doubt it will work great! I totally recommend this laminator and the price is a great deal.

This was terrific for my purposes. I used it to add foil to my Christmas cards. For the majority of the cards, I used a royalty free image from Google images, resized it to fit my cards, printed the image onto a piece of white 80 pound card stock and then put the metallic foil on top, with the color side facing up, and then ran it through the laminator. The results were elegant and easy. I will try to add a photo of one of the cards.

My fiance and I have now used this laminator for gold foiling and actual laminating, and it's been just wonderful. And neither of us had previous experience with either task, by the way. We first used it to add gold foiling to about 100 wedding invitations, "details" cards, and "RSVP" cards. We then used it to laminate 20 table numbers for our wedding (using these laminating pouches, also ordered on Amazon, that I also highly recommend: "Polaroid Thermal Laminating Pouches, 8.9 x 11.4-Inches, 3 mil thick, 50-Pack"). Ultimately had great results with both projects, despite us being total amateurs. Our little laminator has been exposed to a very, very high volume of work as of late with our wedding projects, oftentimes left on for hours and hours at a time, particularly during the gold foiling invitations phase. It has been a champ through it all, and we have no complaints about its performance. Love the sleek design of the laminator, as well as its convenient, compact size, which makes for easy storage when not in use. Truly a great product.

I bought this in august 2013 and right out of the box on the second lamination (3mil) it would bend the corners. It has continued that on and off. I would still try to use it because when it does it right it comes out beautiful, but i just used it on a friends document and it literally jammed the paper inside. Had to turn it off, pull the emergency lever, and it came out horribly crumpled and bent, with no hope of fixing it. And it was a friend's document! Will not use it anymore, might just throw it in the trash and buy a new one because i need it for work. DONT BUY THIS MACHINE! Get a more expensive but reliable one, its worth it

It's okay for it's purpose. I didn't buy it to laminate things so I can't say if it's a good laminator. It heats up fairly quickly so I think it's safe to assume that it laminate pretty well. I use it to foil greeting cards. So far it does the job but I'll probably invest in a proper foil applicator.It does have a smell like other reviewers said. I've used it a handful of times and the smell still persists just not when I first turn it on to heat up. The brand new first time use smell is gone. Now when used for a while or left of on for a while it gives off a burning smell. It's not unbearable but noticeable.