I'm new to sublimation so it's probably something I'm doing wrong but my images are mainly coming out speckled/faded. I'm using a Sawgrass SG400 with Sawgrass inks and papers, LW 11oz and Xpress 10oz mugs and a cheap round halogen oven with a temperature gauge inside. I bought some green mug wraps from Amazon which feel tight when wrapped around a mug. I've tried the oven at 180 degrees for 7, 8 , 9 and 10 minutes as well as 200 degrees for 7, 8, 9 and 10 minutes for one mug. I've also tried heating the mug to take the chill off. I use Photoshop to create the image and then send it to the Sawgrass online designer program to print out.
The photo shows how they mostly come out. Admittedly the image is black (or should be) and I've read there can be problems with black. I've also found that the right hand side is usually much better (near perfect) with the left side being much worse. Sometimes both sides are just as bad. I've reversed the paper on the mug (printed it upside down) and got the same result (better right, bad left) so I don't think it's the image. The image is a png file in RGB format.
Is there something I'm missing or could it be this image? I have printed others which have come out a lot better but also others which have come out similar. The black is 100% black on screen (#000000) and one side often comes out nice and black.
Should I either:
- Forget the halogen and buy the Blizzard oven that some of you use with good results?
- Forget the halogen and buy a mug press (although I like printing close to the handle)?
- Try some other combination of temperature and time?
- Carry on and make sure I never have any black in my images although some of the other images have come out poor?
- Something else?
Help!
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