I only started dye subbing mugs yesterday (10 done so far), so just thought I'd note down my findings that may help others. It's probably second nature to a lot of you, But here goes anyway.
1. The mug press I use is a pneumatic one:
- the standard 180 deg / 180s works, but don't set the press to 180s as it only starts counting once it warms up which overcooks the blacks and they come out brown. Let it get upto temperature first before throwing the mug in then I set a stopwatch from when it closes, and stop it at 180s, which then using a bit of maths let me reset the timer for 40s (heat up + 40s = 180s), they're perfect blacks now.
- on the valve block theres 2 valves, one for open and one for close, I adjusted the 'open' valve so it opens a bit slower as it was jumping the mug and ghosting the print.
2. Once it's out the press, take the paper off straight away and place on a cake cooling rack in front of a fan, this is to quickly stop the dyesub process. I was getting a coloured haze above text before this - I've heard dunking in water works too but I haven't tried this.
Anyway, I'll add more as I come up with them, but I must admit the colours are bright and the images are crisp.
Hope that helps someone.
QJ