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Flash
29-11-2009, 09:20 PM
Hi guy's,
I found you through another Forum and your not going to be glad that I did!
I have been printing t-shirts for about two years now but over the last few months I have been drifting away from the t-shirt business and I have been getting into printing other less seasonal items ;)
My time has come to start considering printing mugs! I have been doing a little reading on this great resource as well as other Forum's and I think I am starting to get my head around Dye Sublimation Printing http://illiweb.com/fa/i/smiles/icon_cheers.png But I do have a few early questions before I start spending my hard-earned on equipment :?:

If I am going to be printing mostly mugs would you recommend a 4 colour printer? Which model should I go for?
I know nothing about ICC profiles, do I need to learn?
Should I start with a 'Budget' mug press to see if Mug Sublimating is for me or is this false economy?
Should I be buying my Sublimation Ink from Revolution Transfers, as they're the best prices I have found. Anyone using them?

Any more tips or 'I wish I had known that from the start' knowlege would be most appreciated.

Many thanks in advance and a big hello to you all.

Phil

Calypso Bay
29-11-2009, 09:31 PM
Hi Phil,

Welcome aboard. Im just like you, have just boarded and completely new to sublimation printing. Im in Lancashire and hoping to start off part time at a market stall on Saturday's and see what happens from there. I have a good sized garage/workshop to start from.

I am after a printer aswell and am thinking of the EPSON 1400, but still not sure which way to go.

i wish you all the best mate.

Calypso

theemmanewman
29-11-2009, 09:37 PM
Hi and welcome, I am new here too. I am no expert but if you are just doing mugs do you need an A3 printer? I have found my smaller Epson perfectly good for mugs only.

Flash
29-11-2009, 09:45 PM
Hi Phil,

Welcome aboard. Im just like you, have just boarded and completely new to sublimation printing. Im in Lancashire and hoping to start off part time at a market stall on Saturday's and see what happens from there. I have a good sized garage/workshop to start from.

I am after a printer aswell and am thinking of the EPSON 1400, but still not sure which way to go.

i wish you all the best mate.

Calypso
Hi Calypso,
I work with the Wife in our Shop full-time. As I said above, we have been doing t-shirts for about two years now but have found that t-shirt sales 'fall off' dramatically in the winter months so we have started to print other items.
In our shop we have a Colour Laser Printer and an Epson fitted with a C.I.S.S system, both we have used for a few 'light-coloured' transfers in the past.
We also have a Vinyl Cutter which we also use for t-shirt decoration.
As well as this we have a Manual Vacuum Bed Flat Press which we use to produce our own 'Plastisol' Transfers, again for t-shirt decoration.
We have an Adkins 38 x 50cm Heat-Press and an Adkins Cap Press (mainly used for t-shirt sleeve decoration!)
Now Dye Sublimation. I must be mad!

Phil

Justin
29-11-2009, 10:20 PM
Hi Phil,

Welcome onboard, good to see you.

If it's ok with you I'd like to take your thread into another section as I think it would be useful to have the information elsewhere on the forum. I will leave your introduction and start a new thread.

You'll get some great support and advice on here :-)

Cheers for now,
Justin

John G
29-11-2009, 10:38 PM
Hi Phil, welcome aboard from another screen printer. You'll should get all the answers here on this forum. :D

Cheers John

Paul
29-11-2009, 10:59 PM
Hi guy's,
I found you through another Forum and your not going to be glad that I did!
I have been printing t-shirts for about two years now but over the last few months I have been drifting away from the t-shirt business and I have been getting into printing other less seasonal items ;)
My time has come to start considering printing mugs! I have been doing a little reading on this great resource as well as other Forum's and I think I am starting to get my head around Dye Sublimation Printing http://illiweb.com/fa/i/smiles/icon_cheers.png But I do have a few early questions before I start spending my hard-earned on equipment :?:

If I am going to be printing mostly mugs would you recommend a 4 colour printer? Which model should I go for?
I know nothing about ICC profiles, do I need to learn?
Should I start with a 'Budget' mug press to see if Mug Sublimating is for me or is this false economy?
Should I be buying my Sublimation Ink from Revolution Transfers, as they're the best prices I have found. Anyone using them?

Any more tips or 'I wish I had known that from the start' knowlege would be most appreciated.

Many thanks in advance and a big hello to you all.

Phil
Hi Phil. Welcome on board.

if you going to print mugs only I dont think you need anything bigger then A4. I own epson D88+ my self and do fantastic job! even t-shirts! I dont need any thing bigger then that so it's good enough for me.
epson D88 is 4 color (CMYK) printer.
ICC is very simple to instal. click on it twice and job done :) but ther is always short manual how to use it so dont worry. there is no much to learn ;)

regards to mug press... should you chose economy one? well... I dont know what to answare but there is lot of people on here they will say "buy a good one!"
I own cheap mug press and I am using it for over 3 years now and still does fantastic job. you lucky as martin (BMS) got few on offer now for members of this forum. link here! (http://dyesubforum.co.uk/member-to-member-offers-requests-f14/df1-mug-press-t68.htm)
I am sure you can give it a go! if you like it and you business wil expand you can buy mug machine. so you can bake 4 mugs at once ;)

regards to ink. I recomend artanium one for the begining :)


I hope this make any sens for you :D:D http://illiweb.com/fa/i/smiles/icon_cheers.png

Flash
29-11-2009, 11:10 PM
Hi Phil,

Welcome onboard, good to see you.

If it's ok with you I'd like to take your thread into another section as I think it would be useful to have the information elsewhere on the forum. I will leave your introduction and start a new thread.

You'll get some great support and advice on here :-)

Cheers for now,
Justin
Hi Justin,
No problem, let me know where you put it (or subscribe me) as i need the info!

Phil

Flash
29-11-2009, 11:13 PM
Hi Phil, welcome aboard from another screen printer. You'll should get all the answers here on this forum. :D

Cheers John
Hi John & thanks!
Plastisol & sublimation ink what a mix :shock: As long as it comes off with Fairy Liquid ;)
Look forward to future chats!

Phil

Flash
29-11-2009, 11:17 PM
@Paul,
Many thanks Paul some useful info here mate. Thanks given ;)

Phil

purpledragon
30-11-2009, 12:55 AM
Welcome aboard
heres my advice
buy cheap buy twice as they say , its no good getting a cheap mug press then losing ££££'s in misprints.
Colour profiles are very important read up on them and make sure you are using the right one for your set up.
as for ink i dont think you can go far wrong with artanium inks
and remember if its not going right theres normally an answer on this forum just ask
Brett

JSR
30-11-2009, 01:05 AM
If I am going to be printing mostly mugs would you recommend a 4 colour printer? Which model should I go for?
I know nothing about ICC profiles, do I need to learn?
Should I start with a 'Budget' mug press to see if Mug Sublimating is for me or is this false economy?
Should I be buying my Sublimation Ink from Revolution Transfers, as they're the best prices I have found. Anyone using them?

Any more tips or 'I wish I had known that from the start' knowlege would be most appreciated.
Hi Phil

When I started out, I was fortunate enough to already have a suitable Epson printer (the 1290S).

To try the waters, I got myself a couple of sublimation cartridges (not cheap but not as expensive as a full CISS), a box of mugs, and a couple of 80mm wraps from Revolution Transfers. The wraps work in any domestic oven, so all I needed to do was to put in the cartridges, print an image, stick it to the mug, put the mug in the wrap and the wrap in the oven. Twenty minutes later I had my first mug.

There weren't any forums around like this in those days so I made tons of mistakes in that first month, but it proved to be a good learning curve.

The first essential you need is a printer with the sublimation ink. You can hold off on the press for a while by getting a couple of wraps and using your oven. If you decide it's for you, then you can splash out on a mug press (or a mug oven with more wraps). If you decide it's not for you, what have you lost? The price of a couple of wraps, and you can reuse the printer with OEM inks.

On the subject of inks, it's worth noting that Sawgrass hold the patent for dye-sublimation ink on desktop printers. Sawgrass ink is called Artanium, Rotech, or Sublijet. Companies that sell Sawgrass ink are legally-licensed to do so, but it means that the price is pretty much always going to be the same.

Companies can sell dye-sublimation ink of other (non-Sawgrass) inks, but only for use in large format printers. I'm fairly sure that Revolution can't legally sell you their Lyson dye-sublimation ink for use in a small-format (A4 or A3) desktop printer. If you have a large-format printer (over 17", I think) then you're okay.

JSR

Flash
30-11-2009, 05:40 PM
Hi Brett & JSR,
Thank you for your very kind tips and advice. I will take it all on board.
Look forward to future chats!

Regards
Phil