gorgall2;57191 wrote:The black handled BMS bags are much better than the white promo ones. they are made of a completely different material which feels like cotton.
wonder why the white ones are different? I didn't think the handles were long enough do think I might still have a problem
I sell Natural Cotton 5oz Bags and at the moment I also have some 10oz Natural Cotton with 15cm gusset bags. I print loads of these.
I purchased a HP CP1025 colour laser printer from PC World for £99.00 and then purchased The Magic Touch 3.1+ A4R paper. The printer has done about 3000+ prints now and I reckon I have lost about 5% due to page jams. I will point out that the printer is not supported at all by The Magic Touch but then if it works there is no reason why it can not be used (even Alan from TMT who has just joined will tell you that).
Paper works out at 30p plus VAT per A4 sheet if you but 1000 sheets at a time and I estimate the toner to be 10p which is a massive exageration but covers me. Bags from me are 30p each or 28p if you buy 100 or more. So essentially 1 bag will cost you 70p
I have tried sublimating these bags firstly without any coating and the image simply fades away after about half an hour. Coating them with a spray just takes too long and not worth it as the coating needs to be cured at 160 degrees for 20 minutes. The only way you can do that is by pressing each bag for 20 minutes. Not worth it when a laser printer is less than £100.00
I press with heavy pressure for 15 seconds at 185 degrees and bag looks perfect everytime.
I will say that in fairness if your items need to be 100% colour acurate it would be better to purchase a better laser printer direct from the maic touch as they know what works and have great customer service. But seeing as the bag is a light yellow the colour will always be slightly different.
I know there are other laser papers out there and some members rave about YOLO. I have never tried them as TMT prodcuts work, customer service is great and prices are spot on so I see no reason to try anything else.
Hi jenny
Socialgiraffe is right, Sublimation basically dyes white polyester - thats a bit of an over simplification as some other plastics will dye as well but it dose not work onto natural fibres. The TMT papers are designed for laserprinters and transfer the actual laser print onto the target and so are fabric neutral.
though as pointed out the underlying colour will, like sublimation, effect the light transfer prints (TTC).
HP printers, there are some really good A4 ones @ £1000 though :rolleyes:. Our tests on the lower end ones show scratching and tramlines in the images caused by the top exit pressing the print onto the lower rollers, this gets worse with age. HP toner also has a tendency to breakdown under heat, you get a yellow stain on the backing paper when peeled for many models, this is a form of sublimation if your interested.
Well this idea/hobbie of mine is turning out to be a little expensive lol. I'm going to give the black handled BMS ones a go and see how I get on and might even give poly cotton a go, why not hey!? thanks to everyone who has given advice, things are starting to make sense now. I feel slightly liberated!
