Mug Press Kit Guidence

[Gerald214]

Hello,
I wonder if somebody could advise us. We are looking into buying a mug press. We have a small business working from home as illustrators and we were thinking of a mug press to be able to produce a few promotional mugs and to perhaps sell a few through the local village pub at Christmas. We are not looking to enter this as a business. We don't have much spare cash and we have been looking at the cheaper kits on Ebay, but are they any good for our purposes. The other problem we notice is the Dye sub inks, a mug press kit can be purchased for around £250 and then the inks look as though they will cost up to a £1000 on top. We are also confused as to what is the best printer, there are various Epson's such as the S22 then there are Ricoh, Canons etc. All we wish is some simple plain advice, a printer and inks with a link if possible that is cheap but good quality. If anybody could guide us we would be very grateful. As I said money is tight and we can't afford to waste it by buying the wrong thing. Thank you, hoping you can help. Regards Gerald

[mrs maggot]

Gerald, welcome to the forum you will see this question has been answered lots of times before, so the best advice is grab a large mug / can of beer or glass of wine and READ the forum, you will have lots of answers for cheaper options -

one thing to consider is that BMS a supplier on here do a complete start up kit, which they have just reduced for forum members that pay a yearly fee (£10) so nip onto the BMS website and have a look at it, and the price, and see if that might make a good starting point.

[bms]

Hello,
I wonder if somebody could advise us. We are looking into buying a mug press. We have a small business working from home as illustrators and we were thinking of a mug press to be able to produce a few promotional mugs and to perhaps sell a few through the local village pub at Christmas. We are not looking to enter this as a business. We don't have much spare cash and we have been looking at the cheaper kits on Ebay, but are they any good for our purposes. The other problem we notice is the Dye sub inks, a mug press kit can be purchased for around £250 and then the inks look as though they will cost up to a £1000 on top. We are also confused as to what is the best printer, there are various Epson's such as the S22 then there are Ricoh, Canons etc. All we wish is some simple plain advice, a printer and inks with a link if possible that is cheap but good quality. If anybody could guide us we would be very grateful. As I said money is tight and we can't afford to waste it by buying the wrong thing. Thank you, hoping you can help. Regards Gerald

Hi Gerald and welcome and thanks to Mrs Maggot for the intro! I have many conversations with many people who are either going into sublimation and want advice, have gone into sublimation and have gone down the route of cheap machines and having wasted time (and money) just want to get it working properly and then those who have done their own research and have (almost) decided what they want.

If you're just starting out, then whatever you do, buy a sublimation printer that is supported by one of the main sublimation suppliers (and yes we are one) rather than trying to cut your teeth on a printer that isn't supported. The latter may be cheaper initially, but might end up in you spending twice - once on the cheap printer/ inks and then when things don't go to plan having to buy the supported printers. Your choice is really down to the Ricoh or Epson printers and within those they are - Ricoh A4 GXe3300, Ricoh A4 SG3110, Ricoh A3 GXe7700, Epson A3 B1100 and just arrived the Epson Workforce 4015. If you want to do mugs then you really should be looking at the Ricoh A4 printers for best value for money.

If you want a reliable sublimation printer, a mug press that will produce consistently good results onto good quality dishwasher guaranteed safe mugs then the link below will point you in the right direction. The mug presses there range from the DF1 (standard mugs), DF12 (standard plus thinner mugs) or the DF14 (same as DF12 but adds the 2x latte style mugs). The DF1 can be upgraded the DF12 at a later date but if you want to do latte mugs then you have to go for the DF14 from the start.

Recommendation? DF1 starter package with the Ricoh GXe3300. This comes with SubliJetR inks, PowerDriver for colour management, 72 RN coated European Mugs, 100 sheets of TruPix and a roll of heat tape. Everything you need - plus we are here to help you get started and going forward.
http://www.printerowners.co.uk/hardware-equipment/230/mug-press-startup-business-package.htm

[Sand & Sea]

Hi Gerald and welcome to the forum. I would agree with Mrs Maggot, that you would be hard pushed to find a more helpful supplier, or indeed a better offer on a start-up package. If things go wrong, or you need advice then, unlike many other suppliers BMS will do their best to help you out. Although I have been reading this forum for a long time now, and joined relatively recently, as you can see I rarely reply to threads. This is one subject I feel quite strongly about. Sublimation is not my main form of printing, so there is often a long time between prints, but I find that the Ricoh GXe3300 is quite happy to print whenever I need it to, unlike the previous Epson printer which could take hours, just to unblock the jets. If this is just a side line for you, and you don't expect to be printing most of the time, then I personally would go for a Ricoh machine.

[Andrea]

Hi Gerald
We stared sublimating earlier this year and I bought my starter Kit of Martin at BMS.
I have being in business for 25 years in the Motor Trade but have now since May, I have being working with My wife Andrea who is a Professional Photographer for over twenty years.
I did a lot of research and spoke to several suppliers and bought from Martin because I was able to ask questions in simple English and get answers that made sense and were based on very good product knowledge and years of experience.
Explain the features and benefit of each product and there compatibility with each other. and most importantly what wont work and why.
In my years in the motor trade I saw all to often Sales men make the sale for the commission promise the sun, moon and the stars and as soon as they have you money, no backup no after sales , No advise and no back up when thing are not going right.
Give Martin a ring and should you go ahead you will have got the very good advice prompt delivery at a fair price and have the knowledge that you will get good after sales backup.
I did and I am very happy with our Experience, and we are in the Centre of Ireland.
Welcome to the site and it is a great place to share your experiences and discover information from very experienced friendly people who are very helpful.
Well worth paying the membership.
Regards Ian

--
Andrea Duncan Photography

[Gerald214]

Hello Ian,
Thank you for your reply to my message, like Andrea I have also been a pro photographer for over twenty years, I obtained a Btec Nat Dip after studying full time for two years, I also did wedding and portrait photography and having gained a teaching qualification I lectured at various colleges, but I had to give it up due to ill health, today I do some landscape photography and that's about all. I also trained in graphics and my other half is a cartoonist/illustrator, like myself she is also disabled and we basically just keep the wolves from the door income wise. Having had a mug produced for her birthday, we thought it might be an idea to be able to produce our own mugs so that we could use these as promotional items, we figured that if somebody was drinking from a mug with our artwork and logo on it that it might help them remember us, yes I know business rarely works like that, but you have to live in hope.

The problem we face at the moment is cost, being able to justify an outlay of over £600 is very difficult, if we could be sure we could generate enough income from the kit to cover the initial outlay and break even, then we would be happy, but can we? that's our dilemma, it's something we would have to think carefully about.

Can you give Andrea my professional regards, what I have seen of her work is impressive (i did a quick Google search) pity her website gallery isn't working, I hope she goes from strength to strength, I always thought Wedding Photography a great way to earn a living if you could only manage it without having to deal with the public, like Andrea, I'm sure, I have a stack of stories about weddings and photography.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for writing, but the responses so far people of this forum seem to be a nice helpful bunch.
Thanks again
Gerald:smile:


Hi Gerald
We stared sublimating earlier this year and I bought my starter Kit of Martin at BMS.
I have being in business for 25 years in the Motor Trade but have now since May, I have being working with My wife Andrea who is a Professional Photographer for over twenty years.
I did a lot of research and spoke to several suppliers and bought from Martin because I was able to ask questions in simple English and get answers that made sense and were based on very good product knowledge and years of experience.
Explain the features and benefit of each product and there compatibility with each other. and most importantly what wont work and why.
In my years in the motor trade I saw all to often Sales men make the sale for the commission promise the sun, moon and the stars and as soon as they have you money, no backup no after sales , No advise and no back up when thing are not going right.
Give Martin a ring and should you go ahead you will have got the very good advice prompt delivery at a fair price and have the knowledge that you will get good after sales backup.
I did and I am very happy with our Experience, and we are in the Centre of Ireland.
Welcome to the site and it is a great place to share your experiences and discover information from very experienced friendly people who are very helpful.
Well worth paying the membership.
Regards Ian

--
Andrea Duncan Photography

[Gerald214]

Hello,
Thank you for replying, I am just in the middle of replying to the other messages, they seem a nice helpful bunch and all your advise is appreciated.
Regards
Gerald

[Gerald214]

Hello Martin,
Thank you for your reply, I must say I am impressed by how helpful everybody seems to be and so far I gather they they all hold you in high regard. I am really grateful for all your help and advise and the starter kit you suggest sounds like our best bet, however it does worry us about the costs involved, I am not trying to suggest your products are expensive, I am just concerned because at present we are on a low income and could we justify the cost of £600+. Our initial idea was to try to produce some promotional mugs to give away to our customers and potential customers to help drum up business for the coming year, we have no outlet to sell mugs and are uncertain if we could. It does not overly concern us if we could turn a profit on the mugs, if we could recoup our outlay and break even we would be satisfied, but the problem for us is can we, it's an area and a market of which we have no expertise.

Having no spare cash to waste it really is a big worry for us and will take a fair bit of discussion and thought, if anybody can help or advise then of course we would be grateful for any guidance.
All the best
Gerald

[Gerald214]

Hello,
I have just been replying to the other messages and DMS and I would like to say Thank you for advising me, I'm really grateful for all the advise, truly, it's very kind of people to take the time and trouble.
All the best
Gerald

[bms]

Hello Martin,
Thank you for your reply, I must say I am impressed by how helpful everybody seems to be and so far I gather they they all hold you in high regard. I am really grateful for all your help and advise and the starter kit you suggest sounds like our best bet, however it does worry us about the costs involved, I am not trying to suggest your products are expensive, I am just concerned because at present we are on a low income and could we justify the cost of £600+. Our initial idea was to try to produce some promotional mugs to give away to our customers and potential customers to help drum up business for the coming year, we have no outlet to sell mugs and are uncertain if we could. It does not overly concern us if we could turn a profit on the mugs, if we could recoup our outlay and break even we would be satisfied, but the problem for us is can we, it's an area and a market of which we have no expertise.

Having no spare cash to waste it really is a big worry for us and will take a fair bit of discussion and thought, if anybody can help or advise then of course we would be grateful for any guidance.
All the best
Gerald

Like with any business venture it's always worth doing your own research to see if this is viable for you.

[JackB]

Hi Gerald, I have been thinking about where you say, "we have no outlet to sell mugs and are uncertain if we could".
I don't know where abouts in the Uk you live, but I am pretty sure that there will be a DSF member close to you.
You could always approach a local member and see about having them produce your artwork onto mugs for you (local member would of course mean no postage costs)
I am sure that any DSF member would worlk out a reasonable rate so that you could make a fair profit from the sale of the mugs, giving you the experiance of getting sales and extra cash to put towards your own equipment if it works for you.

Jack.