Originally Posted by
ArtyGamer
Forgive the bad word play in the subject; it's my first time actually posting here and I figured I'd break the ice with a joke... but forgot the joke and went for a bad pun instead.
Anyway... in November last year, I switched from years of vinyl t-shirt transfers to sublimation printing and got brave enough to buy a 3D vacuum press from BMS (the usual one - funny shape, comes in black, maroon and silver) and it's been doing great so far with something like twenty to thirty phone cases a week. Then, out of nowhere, it stopped sucking yesterday afternoon. If I pressed the vacuum frame down hard enough, it would maybe get enough of a vacuum to at least tighten the membrane a BIT but that's all. Then, this morning (after I'd closed all my phone case listings on eBay, Etsy and Amazon), I got up to find two more orders that had managed to slip through as they were pending on Amazon when I cancelled the listings and never noticed.
Not being one to let people down, I figured I'd do these last two cases until I could figure out what to do... but I was literally getting NO vacuum whatsoever. In the end, I had to think on my feet and used ten strips of tape to hold the paper to the case, managing to get those two cases done. They're not 100% perfect, and I've apologised to the customers and promised them replacements once I get myself sorted, but it was all I could do.
I tried replacing the hose, replacing the membrane, and even checking to see if the filter had water in it but nothing made any difference. The bundle I bought from BMS didn't come with any technical instructions other than the very vague quick-start guide with the various temperatures, so I have no idea what else it could possibly be. It does state in the quick-start guide that if you have an issue with loss of suction then it could be that the connections to the filter are loose or that you should change the filter... but I can't find any replacement filters anywhere and there's no obvious way to change it unless it means the entire filter mechanism.
So if anyone has any idea what I can do here, I'd appreciate it. The machine isn't even six months old yet but it came with no warranty information and I couldn't see any on the BMS site.. but they no longer have these machines for sale, so I don't hold out much hope in being able to get it repaired or replaced. I spent all of last night and today shopping around and the cheapest I can find a brand new replacement is from Signzworld on eBay at £630 including shipping. I don't particularly want to buy a new one as I literally only started to sell cases in February so haven't even made back the initial outlay (full bundle with jigs etc, which I think was around £1300) and having to buy another machine in order to keep producing the cases would be a very bitter pill to swallow.
Anyway, any help would be great if anyone knows how these things can be tested/repaired and if you know anyone who sells new units at around £600 ish with a warranty (as I now don't trust the machines) that'd be awesome. Or if you can recommend a different type of 3D vacuum press (not the new ones that look like deep fat fryers though) that won't cost the earth, I'd be happy to look into them. As it stands just now, my income has just dropped by 80% for as long as I can't produce these cases (surprisingly, as my cases started to sell, my t-shirts, sweatshirts, mousemats and prints stopped selling!) so I need to get something sorted quickly.
Thanks!
Mark