Plate Press & Bone China Advice

New to this great forum and in need of serious advice! A complete newbie to dye sublimation and was hoping to print onto bone china plates. I have a new Epson dye sublimation ink printer - works well and I have tested it on mugs using wraps in an oven. All good. I have also printed on a few cushion covers using a regular iron - again all good.

Now...for the project I really want to get started on...printing onto bone china plates. I had purchased one of the 'cheapie' combo (5 in 1) varieties on Ebay but had to return it. The temperature was not constant in any way, shape or form. You set a temperature and time and the temperature gauge fluctuated way beyond what was set.

I tried the plate pad and it cracked 2 plates so I put it down to dodgy temperatures and not pre-heating the plate (I discovered after). On bone china, I researched and used a spray on the plate to make the print stick/transfer and it worked somewhat on the plates before they cracked.

I am rambling...I am being so wary now having read some of the other comments about printing onto plates. As this is a new and untested idea, I do not want to invest LOADS of money....when the printing on bone china might not even work.

Any thoughts on the standalone plate presses that are out there that have a plate pad attached? Are these any better than the combo presses that you can adapt to print onto plates? Any help or advice would be much much appreciated.

Hello. This doesn't directly answer your question but in six years i do not know of any other company that sublimates onto plates mainly because they are not suitable for eating off and should only ever be sold as decorative plates. This should also be the advice from which ever company you purchase plates from e.g. listawood.

Thank you but it is decorative plates I am trying to achieve.

Vacuum oven is best way when we experimented some years ago if that helps. Sadly no retail outlets would touch the samples due to them not being suitable for eating off and thus they didnt want to take liability for any consumer issues if advice ignored with them being only for show.