Greetings from Birmingham

[WorthDoingRight]

Hi All,

I am Richard from Birmingham, currently looking into buying a basic setup for sublimation printing of mugs etc. Sorry to say that finances are not good so being very careful to find out all I can before making a major error.

I am currently however really worrying about the ICC profile requirements to get reliable results especially if I go down the route of buying a Brother printer instead of the usual Epson/Ricoh printers.

Well I have paid my £10 membership as I am sure I will get benefits many times over this in the months ahead.

Best regards,

Richard

[RogerC]

Welcome Richard.....it's very helpful here. You're right to be careful. Might I suggest a call to martin at BMS. He and his team helped this absolute newcomer greatly....

www.printerowners.co.uk/

Remember thought the usual situation is 'buy cheap....buy twice'......a good supplier/contact/backup is worth paying for.

[JackB]

HI Richard, If you go the Brother printer route, just contact Paul (a Moderator) on this forum as he is well known for producing and supplying spot on ICC profiles.
http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforum/sh ... er+printer
http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforum/sh ... er+printer

Jack.

[WorthDoingRight]

If you go the Brother printer route, just contact Paul (a Moderator) on this forum as he is well known for producing and supplying spot on ICC profiles.

Thank you for that information, I have opted to purchase a Brother MFCJ5910DW A3 printer (£97) and a set of the 80ml refillable cartridges (£20) as the first items towards my setup. The reason I have chosen the Brother is that it is A3 (which may be useful at some stage) and that the ink cartridge location suits me better at the front of the machine.

I have found a UK supplier selling what I consider to be very cheap bulk CYMK sublimation inks and having had experience of both Epson and other non Epson cartridges in the past producing similar printouts at a fraction of the cost I feel tempted to order some and see how I get on.

Now I just need to work out whether to just buy a mug press or one of the combo presses (edging my bets) and the paper/tape/mugs to try it all out.

To say that I am feeling a bit nervous is an understatement. I will no doubt be in touch with Paul as buying the equipment to profile the printer myself is not in my budget. But there is no point in paying for a profile until I have decided on which consistant brand of paper to buy and more importantly the sublimation ink - I can always use mugs at home if they come out in the wrong colours whilst learning lol

Richard

[Justin]

Firstly, welcome to the forum Richard

You'll find the following information dotted around the printers section but for quick reference.....

Bulk ink cannot be used in small format printers under the Sawgrass patent agreement I'm afraid, you'd need to be printing with a large format machine. You need to buy Artainium, Rotech etc. to use in smaller printers and you'll notice a hike in price for these. There's still plenty of room for a good profit and you'll get essential support from your supplier, particular if you opted to buy the printer with the inks which is usually the best economical way to go.

You might be able to source cheap inks to use in your printer, the bulk inks you've mentioned for example could be used in refil carts with a custom made profile. This isn't officially allowed under the patent and would get the supplier into big trouble as they should be checking you have a large format printer. Unfortunately we can't discuss such inks on the forum...them is the rules by which we must live

[RogerC]

Firstly, welcome to the forum Richard

You'll find the following information dotted around the printers section but for quick reference.....

Bulk ink cannot be used in small format printers under the Sawgrass patent agreement I'm afraid, you'd need to be printing with a large format machine. You need to buy Artainium, Rotech etc. to use in smaller printers and you'll notice a hike in price for these. There's still plenty of room for a good profit and you'll get essential support from your supplier, particular if you opted to buy the printer with the inks which is usually the best economical way to go.

You might be able to source cheap inks to use in your printer, the bulk inks you've mentioned for example could be used in refil carts with a custom made profile. This isn't officially allowed under the patent and would get the supplier into big trouble as they should be checking you have a large format printer. Unfortunately we can't discuss such inks on the forum...them is the rules by which we must live

All good info Justin...hence I said 'buy cheap...buy twice'........the 'shortest route' isn't necessarily the cheapest in the long run.

[WorthDoingRight]

Thanks guys for the heads up. My initial thinking was that IF my printer setup was incompatible to quality results then my outlay would not be too high.

I can always find a use for an A3 printer whether it is for posters, artwork or sublimation - so if all fails I wont feel too depressed.

[bms]

Welcome to the forum Richard