Equipment - bag sealers

[kedge]

The WIM heat sealer, which has been used to seal countless maps into poly bags over the years, not just by WIM but almost every club in the SW and SC, is on its last legs.

It is so aged that replacement parts are now not to be found - next time it is abused and fails it might just be the last time, and it faces a busy spring with events from Sarum & WSX, to say nothing of all the maps for the British Championships.

We are beginning to look for a replacement, before the inevitable happens.

What equipment do other clubs use, where did they get it from, and what sort of cost are we looking at? There appear to be some fairly cheap units offered for sale on e-bay, but are they suitable for the sort of job we need them to do?

[chris at aire]

Try
http://www.scobiesdirect.com/Products.a ... dCat=62180
recently bought 300mm model with cutting edge. seems good for the job.

[redkite]

We bought a second sealer ( Budget heat sealer 300mm + cutter) just before Creoso from Devenport Packaging (http://www.davpack.co.uk) at a cost including delivery of £203.

Worked fine Seem to remember having a happy, enjoyable saturday morning bagging and sealing 1700 maps with a few other willing volunteers.

[red adder]

Here at Suffoc we now do brand new 1:10,000 A4 overprinted maps for all our District events. We bag up the maps (Blue and Brown tend to have 2 maps back to back) using poly-bags that have a sealable strip (you just press your finger along it to seal). The description sheet acts as proof of entry (1 sheet at registration = 1 map at the start). Knowing that some people like to put their description sheet in the map-bag we don't actually seal the bag up. This saves time in preparing the "package". As the maps are kept in a poly bag in the polyurethane boxes at the start they don't get wet when it rains.

Sealable bags suitable for A4 maps cost about £ 23 for 1,000 (less than 2.5 p each)

[PorkyFatBoy]

Here at Suffoc we now do brand new 1:10,000 A4 overprinted maps for all our District events.

and we always have A4 maps because we tailor the area of the map to fit the courses. So we end up with maybe four slightly different maps for an event. These have even been 1 landscape and 1 portrait for parts 1 & 2 of the same course.

[NeilC]

We use one from Viking Direct
http://www.viking-direct.co.uk/(p2wi3l450uv1wtbr2gubdf45)/catalogsku.aspx?id=p300c

Also available as a 400mm

[El]

You can buy A3 bags with a sealable strip on as well - we used these (as well as A4 ones) for BSOC back in November. Personally I didn't do any map bagging, but I didn't have any complaints from the willing volunteers (!) that did.

[mharky]

They don't seal map bags in sweden.

do youu really need to seal the bag for penhale???

[kedge]

Worst case scenario - the weather like last year's British. Gales blowing the rain horizontally straight off the Atlantic. The map has to be protected for up to 90 minutes from this - perhaps longer.

We'll leave your bag open if you like, Mark

[mharky]

fine

im more worried abouout 1:15000 on penhale to be honests

[brooner]

that'll be even better in the pouring rain

[Tatty]

Having run abroad quite a bit, even in a gale! I've never had problems with their unsealed mapbags.

[Mrs H.]

We went to the Belgian 3 days a couple of years back and the map was sort of laminated - quite good - but a bit stiff if you like to fold it up quite small like me.

[Stodgetta]

I'm happy with unsealed bags. There's nothing worse than a sealed bag full of air and map that you can't fold down. I've never had a problem with a mushy map at colour codeds/training runs with unsealed bags.

It would be far better for me at JK seeing as I will spend my birthday bagging and sealing 3000 maps

[gross2006]

Having run abroad quite a bit, even in a gale! I've never had problems with their unsealed mapbags.

I've been abroad too and mostly the map bags are ok as long as it's the 'best' weight........ you're better with no bag than some of the grotty thin things.......