Anyone use the Glass Sublimation Photo Frames?

[AdamB]

First off - this is not a complaint at the quality of the product, as they are very nice and I could have sold 50+ of them from the test one I have on a shelf.

This post refers to the Glass Sublimation Photo Frame at BMS: http://www.printerowners.co.uk/subli...hoto-frame.htm

The thing is - I have had loads of breakages when I try to press them which obviously means too much pressure. So, I lower the pressure but have to up the timings.

I've been in communication with Martin at BMS and I think we've ruled out the fact of these being a faulty product -I just need to get it right!

My hope here is that others may be using these and I could compare notes, a few images are below of the 'last' one I tried to press. It seemed to go well but 1 area of the image didn't transfer very well (top left as shown).

Glass-Frame1.jpg Glass-Frame2.jpg Glass-Frame3.jpg Glass-Frame4.jpg Glass-Frame5.jpg Glass-Frame6.jpg

The BMS site says to use the following to sublimate this sustrate:

Pressing temp 190 degrees for 90 seconds, medium pressure.

This was the last frame I had and to get a half decent image (as above) I used the following:
Press 1: 195 degrees for 75 seconds
Press 2 (after rotating substrate): 200 degrees for 75 seconds
Press 3 (after rotating substrate): 200 degrees for 75 seconds
(225 secs in total)

Is anyone pressing these with success? If so, could you please compare notes with me :)

Many thanks
Adam

[Paul]

dud you used silicon pad with it by any chance??

btw. love the frame. but silver square always put me off. but now i can sii that you can sublimate over this!

[IanMc]

Quick suggestion - try pressing the glass upside-down and heat press for about 3-3.5 minutes with a light pressure. Also make sure the bed of the heat press is nice and warm beforehand. Hope this helps!

[AdamB]

dud you used silicon pad with it by any chance??

btw. love the frame. but silver square always put me off. but now i can sii that you can sublimate over this!

Hi Paul - no buddy, don't use the silcon pad for these. I did try on one but this particular one cracked - might have been the pressure though?
Ref the silver on the frame. I created a template that could be changed in colour and then a personalised message printed. That way the image stayed in the centre and wasn't split with the silver beading. I have a black one that went quite well and could sell loads if I can them right without cracking.

Quick suggestion - try pressing the glass upside-down and heat press for about 3-3.5 minutes with a light pressure. Also make sure the bed of the heat press is nice and warm beforehand. Hope this helps!

I put the pressing upside down to a major factor in the cracking Ian (I think)

I press them like this:

glass-photo-frame.jpg

Do you print these Ian?

[JSR]

I occasionally print the glass placemats/coasters from Listawood. The only time I had breakages was when I introduced a stone cold coaster to a hot press. It only really happened on the smooth-top coasters, not the patterned-top ones which seemed to be more resilient. Gently heating up the coaster first solved the issue, though.

I haven't tried the glass photo frames from BMS, largely because I didn't get on too well with their glass placemats. I'd like to try them, though.

When I press the Listawood glass items, I tend to do it face down and give it a lot longer with very little pressure. The reason for this wasn't because of breakages but because the TruPix paper tended to "stick" to the white backing of the glass items - something that didn't happen if pressed print-side down.

[IanMc]

I print the Octi-Tech variant, plus our (NovaChrome's) own glass chopping boards with none of these kinds of issues. And it's opposite to how you're doing them, Adam (so coated side DOWN). Like Jonathan says, introducing a cold piece to a heat press without 'acclimatising' it first may also have an effect...

[AdamB]

I occasionally print the glass placemats/coasters from Listawood. The only time I had breakages was when I introduced a stone cold coaster to a hot press. It only really happened on the smooth-top coasters, not the patterned-top ones which seemed to be more resilient. Gently heating up the coaster first solved the issue, though.

I haven't tried the glass photo frames from BMS, largely because I didn't get on too well with their glass placemats. I'd like to try them, though.

When I press the Listawood glass items, I tend to do it face down and give it a lot longer with very little pressure. The reason for this wasn't because of breakages but because the TruPix paper tended to "stick" to the white backing of the glass items - something that didn't happen if pressed print-side down.

This is sounding more like a pressure problem. I think the problem lies with me comparing these to other glass products that are made of thicker glass (probably toughened glass as most are chopping boards).
Thanks Jonathan :)

I print the Octi-Tech variant, plus our (NovaChrome's) own glass chopping boards with none of these kinds of issues. And it's opposite to how you're doing them, Adam (so coated side DOWN). Like Jonathan says, introducing a cold piece to a heat press without 'acclimatising' it first may also have an effect...

Thanks Ian :)

I also press quite a bit of metal and glass (chopping boards etc) and have always pressed this in the opposite way to the above (transfer face up on base plate with substrate facing down onto it and the heating element going down on the 'back' of the substrate - with the heat going through the item to the transfer).

This was the way that I pressed the first two - to be honest, the first may have had a little too much pressure and crack (not toughened glass like the chopping boards). So less pressure and ................. crack!

So I flipped over and tried the opposite (and wrong in my eyes) way - this was the best image transfer I could get.

Reference doing glass and metal the opposite way - not sure why I do this, I think I saw a video or read it somewhere as the heat transfers through the item to get the best transfer?

[IanMc]

The reason for pressing metal eludes me, to be honest - I'm told that it dates back from the earliest days of dye-sub, when the metal had an extremely pronounced grain, and that if you sublimated 'face-up', the ink would shoot down the grain. How true that is, I can only guess.

With glass chopping boards, the reason is twofold: firstly, I've found that if you press coated side up you can very very occasionally see blistering or peeling of the coating. Secondly (and this applies to pretty much all products), the process of sublimation relies as much on the temperature of the substrate as on the temperature of the dyes. This is why pressing acrylic photo blocks can be a bit of a PITA... ;)

[NASH]

any chance sharing this template you have Adam