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hakuna
26-05-2012, 08:06 PM
Hi There
i have a 8 in 1 combo press that i bought from coralgraph a couple of years ago i have been having problems with pressing plaques as i seem to get a white spot right in the middle of my image, i have pressed 3 of the plaques and the same mark is there in them all at the same spot i am attatching a photo of the image if anyone has any ideas why this is happening it would be much appreciated, i preheated the plaque first before i pressed it, also i took the heat platen off my press and found that right in the middle of the platen there seems to be a small bubble there and what looks like a heat crack starting it sounds like the heat platen is going on me does anyone know where to buy a new platen for this heat press.

thanks malcolm

letsgo
26-05-2012, 09:19 PM
looks like uneven heat temp to me,have you done a temperature check on the platen

hakuna
26-05-2012, 09:38 PM
Hi
no i havn't done that and dont know how to my heat settings are 200deg and press for 60 secs, i took it apart as i said earlier there seems to be small cracks appearing dead center of the platen also who ever put it together had a bunch of washers between the platen and the top cover, ive taken them out but i have not pressed anything as i have runout of plaques, it presses jigsaws/ phone socks/ipads/placemats/coasters/small 5x7 plaques/mousemats/etc only theses i am having trouble with and i have about 10 of them to do.
thanks malcolm

letsgo
26-05-2012, 09:54 PM
When i looked at your image again it could be low pressure spot.
We use a temperature heat gun which you point at spots on platen to check temp but i know you can get a temperature tape which gives a read out.
When we first started pressing slates had a similar problem so after making sure temp was ok always used silicone mat .
Have you noticed though its always when your busy on a nice job problems start

hakuna
26-05-2012, 10:06 PM
i know what you mean i had an old epson s21 printer that first bought as a package deal from lovecut about 2half years ago when i first got into sublimation its now starting to act up so i broke out and bought the new ricoh sg 31110dn printer, i followed all the tutorials on how to install it but could not get it to work so i ended up uninstalling everything and reinstalled it now its working and its a good printer it has solved my custom color problems so far. where would i get a temperature tape from and how much pressure should you use when pressing the plaques.

bms
27-05-2012, 10:13 AM
Hi There
i have a 8 in 1 combo press that i bought from coralgraph a couple of years ago i have been having problems with pressing plaques as i seem to get a white spot right in the middle of my image, i have pressed 3 of the plaques and the same mark is there in them all at the same spot i am attatching a photo of the image if anyone has any ideas why this is happening it would be much appreciated, i preheated the plaque first before i pressed it, also i took the heat platen off my press and found that right in the middle of the platen there seems to be a small bubble there and what looks like a heat crack starting it sounds like the heat platen is going on me does anyone know where to buy a new platen for this heat press.

thanks malcolm

If everything else prints fine then it sounds like something isn't perfectly flat. Either increase pressure or get some thin silicon rubber sheet that's been discussed here before to spread the heat around and undulating parts of the press/ substrate. You'll need to increase the time to compensate for the silicon rubber to allow the heat to get thought. I'd aim for about 80-90 seconds with thin silicon (approx 0.5mm thick, longer if thick silicon rubber used).