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5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 Great, portable machine for occasional laminators Apr 25, 2011
By Denise Patterson
I teach a class for a homeschool co-op once a week, so often have a need to laminate items for my class, but this being a co-op, they don't really provide those kinds of supplies for the teachers. I've been getting by with those sticky, fussy, self-adhesive pouches and my classes have had to put up with the less than perfect results.
Enter the Fellowes Cosmic 125 Laminator! It fortunately arrived on a day when I had several sight word cards to laminate - these are not really cardstock, but just thin paper, and so lamination is ESSENTIAL if these are going to survive being passed around the class.
The box was securely packaged, and the first thing I found open opening it was a single sheet of graphical do's and don'ts that quickly acquainted me with all the major rules for using the laminator. I like the way they put this on top, so even 'I don't read directions' types can hardly help but look at it. The instruction booklet itself (because I AM the type who reads directions!) was short & to the point & very clear. It helps that it comes pre-assembled - nothing to screw together or even snap together, just unpack it, plug it in, and go!
A set of 10 hot laminating pouches comes with the laminator, so I was able to get started right away. Well, almost right away - the machine takes about 5 minutes to warm up enough to use the hot lamination. I would suggest getting your work organized so you can do several sheets of laminating at a time in order to prevent wasting electricity. Also, even though this is a portable machine, the length of time it takes to warm up makes it a poor choice for if you often need to do hot lamination on very short notice. And speaking of heating up - the laminator itself did not get hot while I was working with it, although it did get a little warm on top, and I suspect it would get hotter for an extended session (I only had a few sheets to do today). The instructions warn that it may take as long as 90 minutes to cool completely if you are switching from hot lamination to cold lamination, so I was worried it would get too hot to sit on my kitchen counter, but it was fine.
As for the laminating process itself, that went very well. The operation is almost silent, and although there is a faint odor as it warms up and works, it is not very strong or offensive. The automatic guide feeds your laminating pouch into the machine at a steady but slow speed - don't push it! I do wish the guide tray was a little longer so I didn't have to stand there and hold the pouch the entire time, but that's a minor quibble. The laminated cards themselves turned out PERFECT and this is going to be very useful for my classes.
In short, I would recommend this laminator for people with occasional laminating needs - if you needed to laminate daily, standing there holding the pouch while it slowly feeds in would get tedious. But, for small laminating jobs, this is a great choice!
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Need to have Heat Control Apr 28, 2011
By R. Yu
"RY"
Used this to laminate some framed certificates that were wrinkling due to moisture. The instructions are poor (can be said for 95% of electronic products) in English as well as Francais, Espanol and Deutsche (I'm sure). It tells you how to laminate in 'cold' or 'hot', but does not advise on which one to use for or other specifics. It does come with a 10-pack of 3 mil thick laminating sheets. It turned out be to easy to use. I first tried one in 'cold', but it did nothing, and am still wondering what that setting is for, then re-did it in 'hot', and came out perfect. Did two more but the heat changed the bright red logos to brown, and the lettering became noticibly less sharp. I don't mind it as much some others might, but there should be a simple heat control for certain types of paper/ink. There are many grades of paper (glossy to construction paper), and the same for ink, and a laminating company should advise paying customers on the effects of the heat. So again, the first one I did also had a red logo, and came out perfectly. Definitely depends on the paper/ink.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 This is a great laminator May 23, 2011
By feemeister
My only beef with this is the instructions are not clear at all, and they really don't give you information on how to use it.
I have only tried the hot lamination, as they didn't include pouches for the cold laminator. But the hot works great. Tried it on several items, and was very happy with all of them (all were paper).
Great item, highly recommend!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Sometimes, less is more May 19, 2011
By Lexington Knitter
The comparison chart on this product's page tells the story - The Cosmic 125 only has 2 rollers, it isn't the fastest laminator out there, and it doesn't work with the really thick laminating pouches. What it does do is save money for the business or individual with light use needs, and it does it without looking or behaving "cheapie", at least from my point of view.
My personal list of practical uses for the laminator:
1) school volunteering (for parents of younger kids, this is an obvious one)
2) task checklists - not everyone has/needs a tablet or fancy phone, and a laminated task sheet with check boxes is the perfect re-usable dry-erase template.
3) Refrigerator-ready photos to mail to family
4) Certificates of achievement from school and that sort of thing.
Which brings me to stuff that laminators aren't great for:
1) Social Security cards, Driver's Licenses, Certified Birth Certificates - anything you might need to show as an official proof of status - not only can the inks be damaged in hot lamination, but laminating generally invalidates these legal documents.
2) Thermal paper documents: think baby ultrasounds, some receipts, some item you might not even realize are heat sensitive. I "blacked out" my pet's veterinary prescription card by using it to test this laminator. Thank goodness it was easy to replace!
3) Archival stuff. I wouldn't want to adhere melted plastic to anything truly old and precious, as not only can these items be easily be damaged by heat, but if they have any value...you probably don't want to be melt-bonding plastic to them. I'm serious about this; watch a few episodes of Antiques Roadshow if you don't believe me.
The Cosmic 125 heated up fairly fast for me right out of the box, doesn't heat up the surface beneath it that I can tell, and is quiet. It doesn't have the "tinker toy" fragility of some budget-end electronics and yes, it's just basically a heater with print rollers, but it beats the heck out of fiddling with getting those "bubbles" out of clear contact paper, my old friend/nemesis prior to getting this machine.
My only real beef with the Cosmic 125, echoing previous posters, is the lack of documentation. My prior exposure to laminators being limited to sealing full pages, I was a complete idiot about the thing out of the box, and I really think that the manual writer should expect you to be just that. I made all the goofy mistakes, like folding an ID card in half to laminate, with a carrier sheet, and then cut out the card, which immediately fell apart into 2 half-laminated cards. D'oh! No, this is not one of those cool scrapbooking machines that is going to print and laminate perfect die-cut shapes to your specifications. That's not what it's for.
But for standard sizes such as 4X6 photos, index card, and letter/legal sizes, there are plenty of brands of pouches out there meeting the thickness capacities of this unit (5mm for index/business card sizes, 3mm for anything bigger).
There is an even less expensive unit that shares most of the 125's features, which is the Cosmic 95. At 9.5" width, the 95 is more than sufficient for letter size documents and photos, but I figure it will take me awhile to wear out my laminator from use - might as well have something that can handle larger artwork and any future unanticipated needs.
As far as adhesion, bubbling issues, etc., I'm still traveling the learning curve with the 925, but it's a champ with the easy stuff (thin, unwrinkled paper items), and reasonable, if a little balky, with slightly thicker or (lightly!) textured items.
I love that I can also pick this up by the handle and stow it away on a shelf using minimal space.
Consider the Fellows Cosmic 125 a social device, much like cell phones or the Internet. Believe me, your friends and neighbors will want to borrow it, or to give you things to seal for them. And then you can demand to borrow that weed whacker in return, shamelessly!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Nice Little Laminator May 13, 2011
By Tamela Mccann
"taminator40"
I teach school and I am sometimes in need of a quick lamination, usually of something small. With only one laminator for the school, and it oversized, I usually wait until I have several items that need laminating before I use it. When I found the Fellowes Cosmic 125 Laminator, I was excited because I saw a quick fix to those little issues that seem to pop up in a classroom.
The Fellowes Cosmic 125 Laminator is perfect for small items; it isn't large enough to do a poster, but can easily handle anything slightly larger than a regular piece of notebook paper. It has both hot and cold settings; I had decidedly better luck with the hot setting than I did with the cold. It came with 10 laminating sheets, which I quickly used for a myriad of small projects. I'm pretty excited about having such a unique tool right in my classroom, and I'm looking forward to continuing to use it for years to come.
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