Hi all,

Was hoping for some advice.

Would the Ricoh Aficio SG 3110DN & SubMeta ST-3042 be suitable for starting off? My wife has decided she wants to begin doing custom mugs, tshirts, phone cases, tablet cases, chopping boards, water bottles and pretty much everything else as a new business venture this year. Originally the plan is to work from the garage at home and we have first refusal in one of Ireland's largest shopping centres when their new kiosk section is ready in June.

I picked up the printer from a contact just before Christmas for the pricely sum of 50 euros (and I know for a fact its only ever ran a print of 30 mugs then went straight into storage a few years ago) I know we'll likely need to pump some ink through it to clean out the pipes but outwith that it's likely as close to brand new as you can get.

Looking at heat press, the submeta 3d vacuum seems to tick all the boxes and we're close to ordering this but I was slightly put off when I notice it marketed as an all in one unit, yet never came with the moulds etc that they demo'd. So the cost price rises somewhat there.Can the moulds and jigs etc be bought pre owned?

Should we bypass both and opt for a more intensive setup? We're both relatively technically minded and sure we will be flying process wise after a few weeks of usage so the last thing I want to do is have to upgrade when I could have just got a better setup now.

Any suggestions for European based blank suppliers would be highly appreciated, we'll be imported a lot from the far east as we have a number of contacts in the manufacturing industry out there with our other businesses, but it's always good to have a backup.