Uses:
A thousand and one uses. Honest!
Lamination is very good for maps. It gives them a plastic
covering that you can then use to write on. It often the case that you
can't see the map for all pencils, dice, bits of paper that
represent gods knows what, or the spilt lemonade, crisps (bllod?) etc.
that have got all over it!
Also maps can have difficulty surviving a campaign over the very hostile terrain of the table. Lamination provides the generally protection of dirt, grease, water, and fingermarks.
The same need for protection can lead to you laminating commonly used sheets of tables, character sheets, and rules cards. Not only are they then safe from most wear and tear, they also look very good.
Pitfalls:
The technology of this process is very similar regardless of where you
have it done. Everyone seems to use
the same little machines (which cost just over £100) which have
little difference in the quality. What the quality seems to depend on
is the amount of care that the operator spends on the process. Excess
plastic can be trimmed off. However there is a bubble around the
paper/card were the plastic does not bond together, and it is very
important to keep a couple of mm from this bubble or the lamination
will simply fall apart.
If you stay away form doing credit/business card size, you should have no trouble. For this size the pitfalls are Legion. Half the pouches do not even fit the normal credit-card size, or they fall apart minutes after being donw. In other cases the laminationappears to be OK, but falls appart when trimmed. The key seems to be to find someone who uses large size puches for credit cards and takes care with the lamination machine. In addition the thicker the card laminated the bigger the bubble it makes and the more likely the final laminate is to come apart.
Cost:
You can expect to pay about £2.00 to £3.00 for A3, £1.20 to £1.50 for
A4, and £0.30 to £0.60 for credit/business cards.