Newbie to mug pressing and need help!!

[tyrob]

Hi guys.
I have been reading nearly all the posts about mug pressing here but seem to not quite find my right answer so i signed up and here i am!.
The problem i have got is i dont know where im going wrong. let me explain:
i bought the press the inks the printer and all the rest of what i need.
i went to try my hand at the mugs only to be presented with a yellow image pressed onto the mug!!! i have altered the temp the times the way im printing but still keep getting " yellow " images??? i have tried 5 mugs so far all same result!
The paper however came with no marked up packaging so am unsure if the paper is photo paper only as it looks and feels like it to be honest i bought the paper from Lovecut as well as the mugs and ink.
the press was bought from ebay and works fine ( the mugs are definatly gettin all the needed heat! )
the printer im using is the epson s21 with a ciss system all set up properly.
the settings on my press are 190 C and 185 seconds and im using medium to hard pressure.
i tried to print on both sides of the paper but same result ( dont know why but i thought i was printing on the wrong side :S )
i have some new paper on the way from a different supplier to see if thats my problem but hopefully you pros can help me out with some much needed advice!
thanks for your time guys

[R.Prints]

Have you tried a nozzle check on your printer?

[bms]

What colour is the image supposed to be - presumably not yellow, but what colour - green, red? Try a nozzle check first to make sure the printer is printing perfectly and head clean if necessary but no more than 2 or 3 times otherwise you'll flood the printhead. If this works great if not then the next paragraph might not be so happy reading...

The S21 isn't a supported sublimation printer by Sawgrass, so I don't know why the supplier is selling that printer, apart from the fact it is the cheapest Epson printer on the market. There isn't an ICC profile for use with the inks available so colour management will be problematic and as this is the entry level Epson printer then the printheads may be more prone to clogging. I'll also assume that the sublimation inks aren't Sawgrass (but please correct me if I'm wrong) so support for these inks with this printer will have to come from the supplier of the system if you have problems with the colours which can't be resolved by the above comment as the mainstream suppliers won't have any knowledge of the inks or the printer to help.

I hope it gets working for you. The issue of some suppliers selling the "wrong" printer with sublimation inks is frustrating for all parties concerned. Time and time again we have experiences of customers buying such printers only to have to buy twice - to buy the "correct" printer and inks. This used to happen with a supplier selling the Epson D92 which was a cheaper version to the then supported printer, and now it looks like the S21 is going to be supplied with equally frustrating end user problems. These entry level printers have been tried by Sawgrass and they either fail quicky or don't print properly hence the current Epson printer is the B40W which has been tried and tested.

Sorry if I sound down beat tyrob and I truely hope you get this up and running perfectly. If we can help anymore then we'll try further but if the issue is colour management then you'll have to go back to your supplier.

[John G]

Are you sure its sublimation ink - I didn't know lovecut sold sub ink, i've looked on their website and there's no mention of it. They do sell transfer ink which I think is for printing paper heat transfers onto t'shirts - not sublimation.

Cheers John

[AdamB]

Are you sure its sublimation ink - I didn't know lovecut sold sub ink, i've looked on their website and there's no mention of it. They do sell transfer ink which I think is for printing paper heat transfers onto t'shirts - not sublimation.

Cheers John


You know John - that's exactly what I thought.

I enquired at Lovecut a few months ago when setting up for mugs and e-mailed them. They said exactly the same thing - transfer ink (t-shirts etc) NOT sublimation ink (mugs etc). It was a little wierd as if I didn't ask I would have presumed that it was the required ink and I reckon they would have sold it me complete ................... although they wouldn't be at fault as the customer should confirm before purchasing.

Anyway, this has me a little curious - is there a way to check if it is transfer ink and not sublimation ink?

AB

[John G]

Yes, the price :lol:

[bms]

is there a way to check if it is transfer ink and not sublimation ink

Print a swatch of 4 colours - cyan, magenta, yellow, black and try to heat press that onto something. If the colours don't transfer then that may be the answer.

[tyrob]

Ok thanks guys.
i bought the S21 on a friends recommendation who does this kind of thing unfortunately i cant get hold of him to get his views on this.
i changed the paper and there is slight ( not so much ) change . i saw a bit of black coming through!! lol
the picture in question was a nice bright tigger and pooh so u can imagine what its meant to be like heres my bad poor result :(
[attachment=0:1qcabs1y]mug.jpg[/attachment:1qcabs1y]
sorry picture aint great
as to the ink on the bottles i received they state "epson pigment ink". i bought it with the ciss system there and if its the ink ARRGGHHH lol the product on love cut is listed as : S21 S20 D92 D78 LoveBrite® Pigmented transfer ink Ciss System
Told you guys i was a total newbie and apologize if i sound dumb .
i dont have an available flatbed press to try the prints on say a T shirt would an iron do? not sure how that works either.
the press im using by the way is an MP-70D if that means anything to guys?
if it turns out to be my ink where is the best place to buy some proper stuff? Also which printer would you guys think would be better than my current ( lol my missus will not be happy as i have 3 printers already lol )

im truely grateful for this guys

[John G]

Hi, Its definately not sublimation ink - looked on his site and he doesn't sell sub ink.

[bms]

Yeah John G's right this isn't sublimation ink.

You've got a choice of either the Ricoh GXe3300 A4 printer or the Epson B40W printer. The Ricoh comes with sublimation cartridges and the Epson B40W comes with an Easyflow ink system (similar to your exising CISS). You've looking at between £250+vat and £320 +vat for these printers with the inks. If you want to talk through your options then you've welcome to call us or get some feedback from members here as to which printer they're using.

[Ian M]

Now this sounds silly but, it's working for me.

Over the last few weeks I have been using an S21 printer with ciss & really good results.

As far as the ICC profile I decided to try the D88 profile & you know what it works. I know it shouldn't but, it does.

The colours I'm getting are just the same as what I have on my screen & all my customers are happy with the results too. One of my customers is a photographer & they would be the first to complain if the colours were wrong.

I know a lot of people will turn their noses up at me for this but, as I said it works for me & I'm turning out some really nice work now.

Ian

[bms]

Glad to hear it's all working out for you Ian M. Would be worthwhile sending details to AdamB of where you got your CISS and inks so he can replicate the setup. If it works for you then that's all you need. ;)

[John G]

Hi Ian M, What kind of work are you printing - is it dye sub, mugs, t'shirts etc ?

[Ian M]

Martin, many thanks for your really kind words as they mean so much to me.

I tried your mugs for the first time this week & WOW! best mugs I have had for a long time with amazing service too.

Ian :D

[Ian M]

Hi John,

I do dye sub work mainly mugs & have been doing quite a bit of work on metal too. I've just started getting the hang of T-shirts now & have a few ideas for them.

I set a couple of friends up in Australia to print mugs to promote their own garage business & they have been selling more than me........lol. Their idea was to give a mug to every customer who had their car repaired or serviced by them. The idea went so well that they now have 16 different mugs to collect. They have also brought in a lot of new business & they had one customer wanting them to restore his classic car from the other side of Australia. He said they can have the job so long as he got a mug he had heard about. They do classic car shows over there on a regular basis & they always sell all their stock of mugs.

Now because I helped them they have now returned the favour & they supply me with dye sub ink which they get from a very reputable company over there is Oz. The ink is produced over there & is excellent. Since using it I haven't had one blockage & it is like half the price of any dye sub ink over here.

I know I'm doing things on the cheap but, the thing is it's working for me. I do know about print quality as I have a very good eye for it. When I left school all those years ago I was taught screen printing which I did for well over 10 years. I was one of the few people in the country in the 1970's who could operate various Svecia machines. I have to admit I got a bigger buzz working on small hand beds though.......lol. One thing I don't miss is the smell & I'm still trying to work out why low odour inks always smelt worse than any other ink.........lol.

Ian :D

[John G]

Hi Ian,
Good story about your friends in oz, its funny how things work out. I'm a screen printer too - been printing since leaving school and 27 years later still plodding on with a hand bench and carousel - never worked a svecia though. Don't mind the ink smell, just washing screens makes your clothes and hair a bit pongy :lol:

Got in to mugs to try and offer a wider range of promo items to my customers and love sub printing - just got to get cracking with other sub items when I get the time.

Cheers John

[Ian M]

Thanks John,

It was quite funny with my friends in Oz as we got the mug press, printer & CISS off Ebay over there & the mug press is identical to the one I have over here, I mean talk about lucky. We then found a company doing all the blanks just down the road from the garage that they own. I then had to send a very long email teeling them how to do it & I think they also watched every You Tube video on how to sublimate too. They have taken to printing mugs like a duck to water & as I said they are selling more than me now.

During my time in screen printing I moved around from company to company a bit as it was the best way to learn more. I was never keen doing the 4 colour half tone work as it was a bit of a pain at times. Went through one job where the dots were so small they kept dropping through the holes in the mesh..........lol.

One company we did a lot of T-shirts there & we used a carousel with micro adjustment which was a pain in the bum a lot of the time. Still glad I did it now as I learnt so much.

I keep trying new items when I have some spare time & it involves a lot of head scratching at times but, I usually think it through & get there in the end. Me & my friends in Oz have a saying which is 'Never Ever Give Up' & it seems to be now paying off.

Ian :D

[joeygreen]

Hi i did the same thing after buying mugpress and ink from lovecut , only found out had the wrong ink when it didnt work, they then told me that they do not supply sublimation ink. Do anyone know where to get some sublimation ink for an epson S21 , ive just bought a ciss empty system, what do i do now as i have new ink cartridge with the wrong ink in the printer, do i have to reset it somehow or will it just except my new system ?

[Ian M]

Joey, sent you a PM which I hope helps you out.

Ian ;)

[bms]

Do anyone know where to get some sublimation ink for an epson S21 , ive just bought a ciss empty system, what do i do now as i have new ink cartridge with the wrong ink in the printer, do i have to reset it somehow or will it just except my new system ?

Several suppliers (us included) supply bulk sublimation ink, but you're going to spend £200+vat (£49.99 +vat per colour) on the ink and there are no guarantees this is going to work with the S21. I'm guessing that Ian M is going to say that he's using a different profile with his S21 and all's working fine (hope that's okay IanM!) and that's great. Problem is though that I fear this is the minority of users that buy this printer and get it working with sublimation inks. The S21 has been trialed by Sawgrass and it didn't stand up to the testing. Don't get me wrong, if you get it to work then that's all you want to do - my concern is that spending £200 +vat on inks, with a printer that isn't supported, could stoke up trouble and is an expensive experiment. A new Ricoh printer with sublimation ink cartridges can be bought for £249 +vat upwards and a new Epson B40W with a full CIS full of ink can be bought for around £319 +vat. These printers are provided with support, colour profiles etc and have been tested with sublimation inks.

If you have a CIS that has been primed with different inks then you'll need to completely remove the old ink and get it re-primed with the sublimation inks.

[Ian M]

Martin,

I don't mind at all mate.

As I have said before I do agree with all you say & all I have done like you said is sent a PM to Joey to try to help him out & point him in the right direction a bit.

I like so many others just wish Lovecut would just disappear as so many people get ripped off by them. I had dealings with Lovecut in their previous life (bought a couple of boxes of mugs off them) & wasn't too impressed then. However all that time ago he offered me some sublimation ink but, I already had my suppier for that.

Ian :D

[DREAMGLASS]

The only decent thing that Lovecut sold (Formerly Tek Press) was the heat tape.

I had a case of mugs off them once, that arrived in a flimsy single wall box with seven smashed mugs inside.

[bms]

Cheers Ian :)