Anyone know where I can get a large sheet of lamination plastic? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Anyone know where I can get a large sheet of lamination plastic? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
celestialkin
02-21-08, 01:27 AM I was hoping someone here could help me with my latest project. I have never liked any of the gaming mats I have seen sold in stores. They are all inconvenient, bulky, a pain to clean, super expensive, either too small or too big, etc, etc, etc. In fact, the only mat I have ever liked is the one I got out of my DMG after I got it laminated.

My laminated mat works better than any "professional" mat I have ever seen, it works with every kind of washable/erasable marker, and is easier to clean. It is also easier to store, and after begging some friends I now carry around five of them in one poster tube (with plenty of room to spare for more). After thinking about this for a bit I realized that a simple transparent sheet of a plastic like this would be just what I need.

Having such a sheet would eliminate the problem of size, since I could simply cut it to the size of any table. As long as there is a solid flat surface I could simply lay the sheet over it and start drawing. If it is cheap I do not need to worry too much about damaging it, and I could have a number of sheets at a time for "saved states", and I could even prepare said states beforehand. If it is as thin as one of those projector 8x10 laminates (I believe that is the correct term) sheets storing and transporting them would be a breeze, and again would allow me to stack them for many "saved states". I would not even need to have a grid put on them if I just buy some 99¢ tape measures (40K style), or I could carefully make them with a permanent marker.

So, does anyone know where I can get large paper-thin pieces of this material? Does anyone know the price range I would be looking at for a 4ftx4ft sheet, a 3ftx6ft sheet, or anything similar?

Thanks in advance for any help!

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e189/Celestialdragon100/Signature%20dragons%20and%20monsters/flying-1.gif
****
kuonji
02-21-08, 04:51 AM Check around town for any shops that do custom laminate work. Chances are they could provide what you are looking for.
Holy_Beholder
02-21-08, 07:38 PM Kinkos might have it, I have laminated things there before. However it might be a little large for them.
Mad_Jack
02-21-08, 07:59 PM A craft store like Michaels or Hobby Lobby may sell home laminating machines, or at least the laminating materials for them. I seem to recall the last time I was in my local Michaels there was a roll of laminating material, although if I recall it wasn't particularly wide. Still, you could easily make up generic room and corridor templates that you could lay over your main grid/map...

A search online should bring up a wide range of places where you could get the material you're looking for, and asking around on one of the other gaming forums where they build lots of terrain, like historical wargames or sci-fi tabletop skirmishers, should net you some really good suggestions beyond just using regular laminating material...
MrPiskie
02-21-08, 11:05 PM It's not what you were looking for, but for my personal games, I found some large (27 by 34 inches) easel pads of paper with 1 inch squares at an office supply store. It's easy to trim to the size you need, and you can prepare a map ahead of time so you don't have to sketch the details on the fly. Plus, you can just throw the whole sheet of paper, so you don't have to worry about cleaning the mat afterwards. I love it and it'd be difficult to persuade me to switch over to mats again.
BarivusTheFearless
02-22-08, 01:07 AM www.google.com
Jshock_75
02-22-08, 06:01 PM Laminate generally isn't sold in precut sheets like that; it's sold in rolls. You could ask a printer with a laminator to cut you off a hunk, but it might not be cost effective... plus most laminate has a layer of glue on one side. Might get sticky.
Okinawa3d
02-22-08, 08:07 PM What I use to laminate my sheets (including poster size sheets) is Shelf Adhesive (e.g. Lamine' Transparent). I bought this at "a local VERY LARGE store...with a BIG BLUE sign out front. :)). I used the same material to laminate maps I used while in the field (I am an Infantry Officer so I know that this stuff works in all conditions). I hope this helps.
Damidar
02-22-08, 08:13 PM You may find some cabinet laminate in the housewares department. Also look at stores that cater to teachers. You can find lots of stuff at teacher stores.

peace
McPoyo
02-23-08, 08:39 AM I got some from Staples before. You've gotta go back to their massive printing department for it though, they didn't have any issues when I told then what I needed it for. I think they were worried I was gonna laminate someone's cat or their car up until that point though.
celestialkin
02-28-08, 08:09 PM Thank you all for the help, but sadly I had no luck whatsoever. :(

The only places which do custom lamination work around here are OfficeMax, Staples, and Kinkos. Sadly none are willing to sell me the stuff, since they are not "allowed" to.

I did find some small lamination rolls at both OfficeMax and Staples, but sadly they were all too thin for my needs.

As usual, at my local Michaels(s) the employees did not know a single thing about anything they sell (hence why I like calling them the Walmart of crafts).

It's not what you were looking for, but for my personal games, I found some large (27 by 34 inches) easel pads of paper with 1 inch squares at an office supply store. It's easy to trim to the size you need, and you can prepare a map ahead of time so you don't have to sketch the details on the fly. Plus, you can just throw the whole sheet of paper, so you don't have to worry about cleaning the mat afterwards. I love it and it'd be difficult to persuade me to switch over to mats again.

It might work, but it really isn't what I was looking for. Plus, I do not like to be so wasteful.

Thanks for the tip, though.

www.google.com

Oh brilliant. And so original! Hilarious. Just Hilarious! Such a teaser! You must be some kind of comedic genius.

Yeah, like I didn't try that a few times before I made this thread, and a few more times afterwards. :rolleyes:

You may find some cabinet laminate in the housewares department. Also look at stores that cater to teachers. You can find lots of stuff at teacher stores.

peace

Thanks for the tip, but I am afraid to go into my local school district's building for that kind of stuff. Lets just say I had a little fit when they destroyed all my D&D minis maps in about a minute while trying to laminate them.

You may find some cabinet laminate in the housewares department. Also look at stores that cater to teachers. You can find lots of stuff at teacher stores.

peace

I just tried finding it at my local Homedepot. Sadly no luck. No one there had even heard of "cabinet laminate".

Thanks for the help, though.

What I use to laminate my sheets (including poster size sheets) is Shelf Adhesive (e.g. Lamine' Transparent). I bought this at "a local VERY LARGE store...with a BIG BLUE sign out front. :)). I used the same material to laminate maps I used while in the field (I am an Infantry Officer so I know that this stuff works in all conditions). I hope this helps.

Can you use wet erase and/or dry erase markers on that?

I just tried googling what shelf-adhesive is, but I am still fuzzy on what it is and how it works. I would just ask in Walmart, but odds are they won't know a thing.
HARLEYDUDE
02-28-08, 08:28 PM I'm not sure how thick you are looking for but check a tarp or tent manufactuer. Im thinking of the clear pvc used in tent windows.
???

HD
1red13
02-28-08, 09:10 PM I have been trying some of the tips that have been mentioned here with few results as well. Perhaps i don't live in a large enough city. I haven't been able to find anything that laminates in an appropriate size

At Michaels i did find a dry erase sheet. Approximately the size of pin up calander you would write monthly appointments and dates. Thinking i would put my own lines on to form a grid i found out that dry erase marker that writes over permenant marker will cause the permanent marker to be erased when you erase the dry marker.

I've decided to just go to my local gaming store and buy the professinally made dry erase mats. Looks like a two foot by three foot should cost around $30-$40.
celestialkin
02-28-08, 10:00 PM I have been trying some of the tips that have been mentioned here with few results as well. Perhaps i don't live in a large enough city. I haven't been able to find anything that laminates in an appropriate size

At Michaels i did find a dry erase sheet. Approximately the size of pin up calander you would write monthly appointments and dates. Thinking i would put my own lines on to form a grid i found out that dry erase marker that writes over permenant marker will cause the permanent marker to be erased when you erase the dry marker.

I've decided to just go to my local gaming store and buy the professinally made dry erase mats. Looks like a two foot by three foot should cost around $30-$40.

I see. At least I was not the only one who got a headache from this. :)

As I mentioned in my OP, if you have a DMG you could simply take out the map in the back and have it carefully laminated at your local OfficeMax/Staples/Kinkos/School District. It works great with both wet erase and dry erase, and it is not much smaller, if at all, than the professional ones.

I just wanted something a bit bigger, and that did not have the lines.
Kamin_Majere
02-28-08, 11:09 PM When i used to us battle maps i just bought a large Dry erase board. Its offically the easiest flat surface to draw on that i know of.

Transportation is about the only problem with that, but as i just kept the thing in the game room i never had to worry about it.

But if your just looking for laminte rolls here is a site you can get it from
http://www.usi-laminate.com/store/wpbec_listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?Leve l1=454

They go up to 60in wide and come in rolls of 250ft+
Its not going to be something cheap but you would basically have an endless supply
HARLEYDUDE
02-29-08, 11:12 AM Here's what our DM did. He purchased 3' x 4' white tagboard. He drew 1" squares with a black ballpoint pen, then took it back to the office supply store and had them laminate it. Dry erase works great on it.
HD
McPoyo
03-01-08, 08:18 AM I've got a ~2x3 sheet of plexi I picked up for 9 dollars from the Industrial Surplus depot about 40 minutes from me. It works great, predominantly with wet erase, but dry erase works too (as long as you don't let it sit for more than a few hours. Wet erase has no issues with time, however).

I just throw down a 1x1 pre-gridded tagboard sheet under it. I can pre-gen maps and everything, swap them out by lifting the edge of the plexi, and then just go with it. Only problem is you can't roll it up, but we just store it in the laundry room of the apartment we play at, so it's not much of an issue.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
celestialkin 02-21-08, 01:27 AM	I was hoping someone here could help me with my latest project. I have never liked any of the gaming mats I have seen sold in stores. They are all inconvenient, bulky, a pain to clean, super expensive, either too small or too big, etc, etc, etc. In fact, the only mat I have ever liked is the one I got out of my DMG after I got it laminated. My laminated mat works better than any "professional" mat I have ever seen, it works with every kind of washable/erasable marker, and is easier to clean. It is also easier to store, and after begging some friends I now carry around five of them in one poster tube (with plenty of room to spare for more). After thinking about this for a bit I realized that a simple transparent sheet of a plastic like this would be just what I need. Having such a sheet would eliminate the problem of size, since I could simply cut it to the size of any table. As long as there is a solid flat surface I could simply lay the sheet over it and start drawing. If it is cheap I do not need to worry too much about damaging it, and I could have a number of sheets at a time for "saved states", and I could even prepare said states beforehand. If it is as thin as one of those projector 8x10 laminates (I believe that is the correct term) sheets storing and transporting them would be a breeze, and again would allow me to stack them for many "saved states". I would not even need to have a grid put on them if I just buy some 99¢ tape measures (40K style), or I could carefully make them with a permanent marker. So, does anyone know where I can get large paper-thin pieces of this material? Does anyone know the price range I would be looking at for a 4ftx4ft sheet, a 3ftx6ft sheet, or anything similar? Thanks in advance for any help! http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e189/Celestialdragon100/Signature%20dragons%20and%20monsters/flying-1.gif ****
kuonji 02-21-08, 04:51 AM	Check around town for any shops that do custom laminate work. Chances are they could provide what you are looking for.
Holy_Beholder 02-21-08, 07:38 PM	Kinkos might have it, I have laminated things there before. However it might be a little large for them.
Mad_Jack 02-21-08, 07:59 PM	A craft store like Michaels or Hobby Lobby may sell home laminating machines, or at least the laminating materials for them. I seem to recall the last time I was in my local Michaels there was a roll of laminating material, although if I recall it wasn't particularly wide. Still, you could easily make up generic room and corridor templates that you could lay over your main grid/map... A search online should bring up a wide range of places where you could get the material you're looking for, and asking around on one of the other gaming forums where they build lots of terrain, like historical wargames or sci-fi tabletop skirmishers, should net you some really good suggestions beyond just using regular laminating material...
MrPiskie 02-21-08, 11:05 PM	It's not what you were looking for, but for my personal games, I found some large (27 by 34 inches) easel pads of paper with 1 inch squares at an office supply store. It's easy to trim to the size you need, and you can prepare a map ahead of time so you don't have to sketch the details on the fly. Plus, you can just throw the whole sheet of paper, so you don't have to worry about cleaning the mat afterwards. I love it and it'd be difficult to persuade me to switch over to mats again.
BarivusTheFearless 02-22-08, 01:07 AM	www.google.com
Jshock_75 02-22-08, 06:01 PM	Laminate generally isn't sold in precut sheets like that; it's sold in rolls. You could ask a printer with a laminator to cut you off a hunk, but it might not be cost effective... plus most laminate has a layer of glue on one side. Might get sticky.
Okinawa3d 02-22-08, 08:07 PM	What I use to laminate my sheets (including poster size sheets) is Shelf Adhesive (e.g. Lamine' Transparent). I bought this at "a local VERY LARGE store...with a BIG BLUE sign out front. :)). I used the same material to laminate maps I used while in the field (I am an Infantry Officer so I know that this stuff works in all conditions). I hope this helps.
Damidar 02-22-08, 08:13 PM	You may find some cabinet laminate in the housewares department. Also look at stores that cater to teachers. You can find lots of stuff at teacher stores. peace
McPoyo 02-23-08, 08:39 AM	I got some from Staples before. You've gotta go back to their massive printing department for it though, they didn't have any issues when I told then what I needed it for. I think they were worried I was gonna laminate someone's cat or their car up until that point though.
celestialkin 02-28-08, 08:09 PM	Thank you all for the help, but sadly I had no luck whatsoever. :( The only places which do custom lamination work around here are OfficeMax, Staples, and Kinkos. Sadly none are willing to sell me the stuff, since they are not "allowed" to. I did find some small lamination rolls at both OfficeMax and Staples, but sadly they were all too thin for my needs. As usual, at my local Michaels(s) the employees did not know a single thing about anything they sell (hence why I like calling them the Walmart of crafts). It's not what you were looking for, but for my personal games, I found some large (27 by 34 inches) easel pads of paper with 1 inch squares at an office supply store. It's easy to trim to the size you need, and you can prepare a map ahead of time so you don't have to sketch the details on the fly. Plus, you can just throw the whole sheet of paper, so you don't have to worry about cleaning the mat afterwards. I love it and it'd be difficult to persuade me to switch over to mats again. It might work, but it really isn't what I was looking for. Plus, I do not like to be so wasteful. Thanks for the tip, though. www.google.com Oh brilliant. And so original! Hilarious. Just Hilarious! Such a teaser! You must be some kind of comedic genius. Yeah, like I didn't try that a few times before I made this thread, and a few more times afterwards. :rolleyes: You may find some cabinet laminate in the housewares department. Also look at stores that cater to teachers. You can find lots of stuff at teacher stores. peace Thanks for the tip, but I am afraid to go into my local school district's building for that kind of stuff. Lets just say I had a little fit when they destroyed all my D&D minis maps in about a minute while trying to laminate them. You may find some cabinet laminate in the housewares department. Also look at stores that cater to teachers. You can find lots of stuff at teacher stores. peace I just tried finding it at my local Homedepot. Sadly no luck. No one there had even heard of "cabinet laminate". Thanks for the help, though. What I use to laminate my sheets (including poster size sheets) is Shelf Adhesive (e.g. Lamine' Transparent). I bought this at "a local VERY LARGE store...with a BIG BLUE sign out front. :)). I used the same material to laminate maps I used while in the field (I am an Infantry Officer so I know that this stuff works in all conditions). I hope this helps. Can you use wet erase and/or dry erase markers on that? I just tried googling what shelf-adhesive is, but I am still fuzzy on what it is and how it works. I would just ask in Walmart, but odds are they won't know a thing.
HARLEYDUDE 02-28-08, 08:28 PM	I'm not sure how thick you are looking for but check a tarp or tent manufactuer. Im thinking of the clear pvc used in tent windows. ??? HD
1red13 02-28-08, 09:10 PM	I have been trying some of the tips that have been mentioned here with few results as well. Perhaps i don't live in a large enough city. I haven't been able to find anything that laminates in an appropriate size At Michaels i did find a dry erase sheet. Approximately the size of pin up calander you would write monthly appointments and dates. Thinking i would put my own lines on to form a grid i found out that dry erase marker that writes over permenant marker will cause the permanent marker to be erased when you erase the dry marker. I've decided to just go to my local gaming store and buy the professinally made dry erase mats. Looks like a two foot by three foot should cost around $30-$40.
celestialkin 02-28-08, 10:00 PM	I have been trying some of the tips that have been mentioned here with few results as well. Perhaps i don't live in a large enough city. I haven't been able to find anything that laminates in an appropriate size At Michaels i did find a dry erase sheet. Approximately the size of pin up calander you would write monthly appointments and dates. Thinking i would put my own lines on to form a grid i found out that dry erase marker that writes over permenant marker will cause the permanent marker to be erased when you erase the dry marker. I've decided to just go to my local gaming store and buy the professinally made dry erase mats. Looks like a two foot by three foot should cost around $30-$40. I see. At least I was not the only one who got a headache from this. :) As I mentioned in my OP, if you have a DMG you could simply take out the map in the back and have it carefully laminated at your local OfficeMax/Staples/Kinkos/School District. It works great with both wet erase and dry erase, and it is not much smaller, if at all, than the professional ones. I just wanted something a bit bigger, and that did not have the lines.
Kamin_Majere 02-28-08, 11:09 PM	When i used to us battle maps i just bought a large Dry erase board. Its offically the easiest flat surface to draw on that i know of. Transportation is about the only problem with that, but as i just kept the thing in the game room i never had to worry about it. But if your just looking for laminte rolls here is a site you can get it from http://www.usi-laminate.com/store/wpbec_listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?Leve l1=454 They go up to 60in wide and come in rolls of 250ft+ Its not going to be something cheap but you would basically have an endless supply
HARLEYDUDE 02-29-08, 11:12 AM	Here's what our DM did. He purchased 3' x 4' white tagboard. He drew 1" squares with a black ballpoint pen, then took it back to the office supply store and had them laminate it. Dry erase works great on it. HD
McPoyo 03-01-08, 08:18 AM	I've got a ~2x3 sheet of plexi I picked up for 9 dollars from the Industrial Surplus depot about 40 minutes from me. It works great, predominantly with wet erase, but dry erase works too (as long as you don't let it sit for more than a few hours. Wet erase has no issues with time, however). I just throw down a 1x1 pre-gridded tagboard sheet under it. I can pre-gen maps and everything, swap them out by lifting the edge of the plexi, and then just go with it. Only problem is you can't roll it up, but we just store it in the laundry room of the apartment we play at, so it's not much of an issue.