Mug Bottom Heat Press

[Justin]

Had a few minutes tonight to run a couple more tests. Found a use for the uncoated mugs LW sent me! Coated a couple of bases and printed a customers grey logo along with one of my own orange/grey logos and very pleased with the results. Will add photo's.

Good coverage this time and no faded areas, these look better than in the photo's.

[Justin]

Apologies for reflection.

vB_ID:5654

IMG_20190321_192824.jpg (73.79 KiB) Viewed 22 times

vB_ID:5654

IMG_20190321_192824.jpg (73.79 KiB) Viewed 22 times

vB_ID:5654

IMG_20190321_192824.jpg (73.79 KiB) Viewed 22 times

vB_ID:5654

IMG_20190321_192824.jpg (73.79 KiB) Viewed 22 times

[webtrekker]

Wow! Those logos really raise the perceived value of the mugs. I like both, but particularly like the 'pop' of the orange. Well done Justin, definitely an experiment worth doing.

[UK Printed Mugs]

Well done indeed. Now just the 1000 dishwasher cycles to go

[Justin]

Well done indeed. Now just the 1000 dishwasher cycles to go

Haha, yes that will be interesting! Not too worried about that. Not sure about the dishwasher guarantee with base prints from LW.

[Paul]

Marabu in Milton Keynes do a Glass Ink - Glass Ink GL, which uses a hardener. According to the bumpf it will be touch dry at 20 degrees C in 2-3 minutes and reach final hardness in 4 - 6 days. Alternatively, it cures in 30 minutes at 140 C. I think you get a few hours working time with the ink so long as you have a reasonable volume and it is kept in a lidded container. The 2 or 3 m inute drying time is achieved because it is effectively a thin film and the volatiles can evaporate off quickly.

Soooooo, it looks as though if you are cooking in an oven you should be able to achieve a full or near full cure in the normal cooking time. One unknown (to me) is how easy it is to clean the mixed ink from your rubber stamp and will the ink/cleaner destroy the stamp. I think Marabu will do a sample pack, can't remember how much they cost - £20 rings a bell.

As far as trying to sublimate onto the base of mugs goes............ it is my understanding that Listawood used to coat their mugs upside down and so the base would catch some overspray of the polyester coating. However, they now coat with the mug sitting on its base so there shouldn't be any coating on the base. To be in with a chance of sublimating onto the base, without coating it yourself, is to find a supplier whose mugs are still coated upside down.

Arthur

Just to confirm... GL ink is a great idea and it WILL work. But it needs about 1h at 80C to harden without scratching off. But as you said, give it few minutes and the rest will happen in the box.

[arthur.daley]

Hi Paul

Marabu were quite non committal when I spoke to them and the above times and temps are there guide figures. The cook time on a mug either in a oven or a press should go a fair way towards curing the ink film. I really should dig out the sample pack that I have stashed away somewhere - not a task to be undertaken lightly :0( Then all I need to do is find the time to tinker with it - don't hold your breath on this one!

[Justin]

Quick update to this. I ran off 72 mugs and base printed all yesterday. Subli Glaze was faulty and supplier sent me another can branded as Subli Prep which has worked. One logo wasn't great, probably down to my coating but otherwise they all came out really well. Time consuming printing the logos to the base, I tried 3...4 at a time but best results in the press were 2 at a time but took around 300 seconds at 197c with rubber pads on.

All in all did a really great job but I won't be offering this out generally due to the added labour. Customer paid 50p extra per mug.