First go at mug printing, a few questions.

[magicfingers]

Hi all,

finally got around to setting up a workspace and unpacking the mug printing setup that I bought from BMS. I have their mug press, 10oz mugs and the Ricoh CXe3300 printer. I have a few questions that I hope you might be able to offer some advice on.

Done a few tests designs and finding that I'm not getting a reliably crisp outline along the edges by the handles. I'm using a design that is 22cm wide, giving a gap of 38mm between the sides. Sometimes the edges come out crisply and sometimes not. I'm wondering what sort of gap you leave on your own designs between the side edges.

When printing a design which is mainly black around the mug with white lettering, I'm getting areas of the black that is a bit 'bronzy'. I'm wondering if this is due to either too much or too little heat. I'm currently pressing the mugs at 180 degrees for 150 seconds, and thought I'd ask advice rather than just trying too many variations to save on mugs/paper.

What sort of clamping pressure do you use? Should it take a firm 'clunk' to seat the press round the mug or just enough pressure to hold it in place.

Sorry if these sound obvious questions, but I could probably work my way though a set of cartridges and a couple of boxes of mugs using trial and error, which isn't the cheapest way to learn.

Thanks for the help,

Justin.

[John G]

Your going to close to the handles - i'd take off either 10 or 20mm but that's on my mug press.
Take your seconds up to 170 - 180 and that should cure the bronzing.
You need quite a bit pressure, maybe a few turns more more than you have now.

Hope this helps

[magicfingers]

Thanks John, I'll give that lot a go later and see how we get on.

Much appreciated.

Justin.

[purpledragon]

Johns right 20cm wide is the recomended width for a 10oz mug full wrap

[AJLA]

As John has said unfortunately it may take a few attempts to get it right, temps and times vary from machine to machine it seems, printing with my Epson my press was set at 200 and time at 3 min 30 secs now i'm printing with a Ricoh at the same temp 2 mins 30 secs and am getting really good blacks. Why not test smaller images on your mug that way you can get a lot of tests on the one mug.
Also watch out for tapering on the top and bottom of the mug, if it's not very straight you will have the same problem as you have experienced near the handle.
I print my images a few mm shorter to avoid the top and bottom. Unfortunately I don't get a good fullish wrap top and bottom

[magicfingers]

Hi Mandy,

thanks for the reply, yes we've found the taper on the mugs and had to adjust the image to take account of that, we're now making the image 20cm wide and will be running more tests tomorrow to see how we get on with time and temperature.

Can a mug go through the press several times without the 'glaze' being affected, and on each run just print a small section of it for tests?

[Ian Mc]

You can, within reason - I've put smaller prints on 3-4 times in the past. Do be aware that it's best to completely cover the mug in paper each time, though - this will prevent previous transfers leeching into the teflon coating on the element.

[magicfingers]

Thanks Ian, that's great.

[AJLA]

I often use the same mug over and over, (usually a faulty one or on that I have printed upside down on or something )if in doubt i will test images i'm unsure of, just a small image, enough to check i'm happy with colours.

I will be doing a fair bit of testing now whilst adapting to the Ricoh.

Wrap a peice of greaseproof paper around the mug to prevent the leeching.