Mug costing

[Kevin.Beck]

I think with any sublimation product. Ink cost very rarly comes into it.

Sublimation is a very slow methoid of printing, a mug takes 2-4 minutes each. Not what I`d call fast production.

The sublimation methoid we use, is designed for very small numbers. Personised gifts. This gives us the edge with other methoids of printing.

We would never be able to compete with screen printing. They charge about £1 a mug, single colour. Mug included.

I charge £9 for a mug, slowly dropping my prices the more the numbers go up.
We have to scan an image in, print it out, lay it on the mug and then wait 3 minutes. Thats got to be close to 15 minutes.

When you are printing larger quanties, you can get a production line going.
While the mugs cooking, you can be printing off images and taping the paper onto the mugs, ready for the press.

[Martin C]

I’m at £8 for a Mug and will add some additional graphics, all in or at extra cost dependent on time taken. It’s a nice idea to be able to cost down to the last print but if you are using an all in one colour cartridge you could run out of one colour before the next dependent on the job.

I think that all Transfer Printing should come with a warning…

‘BEWARE.in the course of learning this process you will mess up a lot of stuff in the process!’ I’ve been doing subli on and off for a couple of years and never take an urgent order for a Mug if I’ve not got more than one left in stock. Sods law it will blow or go wrong some way 😳

You may be able to get down to a £1 with screenprinting Becky but you still need to buy a hundred or so don’t you?

[Linda]

Martin,
noting your comments on mug pricing, any comments on sublimated fabric mousemat prices?

I’ve just got through a set of Rotech C82 inks that have probably only printed about 17-18 photo image mousemats.

The Epson utility shows plenty of ink, but Rotech technical think the cartridges are probably empty!!

Linda

[Kevin.Beck]

yes, thats what I was trying to get at.

Screen printing mugs, minimum order 100 items.

[Martin C]

Linda,

I don’t get great quality on Mousemats but I do a lot of 7″x9″ Sublimation Plaques. This is a pure guess just thinking back to what I’ve done recently and I reckon on getting 150-200 prints from a set of cartridges. I’m using a basic Epson Color 980.

Mousemat Price, £8-£10?

[Linda]

Hi Martin,
thanks for the info on the plaques. Your printer has the all in one colour cartridge, like the 1290s The C82 has separate ones & they are small. If the C82 Rotech cartridges are empty after I’ve only done about 18 mousemats, must be something wrong somewhere.

My 1290S will print acres of art prints from one set of cartridges & I’m wondering if the fact that the cartridge is an all in one like yours has anything to do with it.

Express quote 70p an a4 transfer with the 1290S, & having done my sums I’ve just ordered a set of inks from them to put in a 1290S

What sort of image is going on your plaque, would you call it full color or is it text? & which inks are you using?

Thanks again for your help

Linda

[Lorraine Buchan]

I get great mouse mat prints but then I do toner transfer

[AlexTurner]

Hi Linda

18 mousemats to a set of cartridges seems unusually low to me. Would expect much more than this, especially from a full set of cartridges.

Sometimes if your design is very heavilly saturated with one of the CMYK colours, for example yellow, this can run out much faster than the other colours. A full set should stretch much further than this though.

Perhaps if you get a spare moment you could get in touch with us so we can look into this in more detail for you.

Many thanks

Alex Turner
Lisatwood Trade Supplies Ltd

[Lorraine Buchan]

Ever thought of getting a bulk ink system??

I have just had my 1290 installed with a bulking system

[Linda]

Alex,
I contacted you at the time & will do so again

Linda

[Linda]

Hi Lorraine,
i’d be interested to hear how you get on with the bulk system.

I’ve considered it before, but quite a few people on the art printing forums report troubles with some of the systems.

I have got on well with the Xpres inks in the 1290s though. Good colour & seem to be getting the correct no. of prints out.

[Kevin Flowers]

Linda & everyone who is in to Dye Sub there is a exhibition at the EXcel in London starting 23rd Oct. i went last year and all of the major companies involved there were exhibiting there lots of info & advice. I am going again this year to see whats new, Listawood was there last year including one of the top people from Roltech. It may be a bit of a trip for some of you’s but could be worth it in the long run

Kevin

[Kevin Flowers]

😳 Forgot to include Exhibition name Digital Solutions on demand
Ticket Hotline 0870 7444 988. If anyone decides to go give me a shout perhaps we can meet up

Kevin

[Lorraine Buchan]

Sound interesting Kevin will have to look into it

[Steve Thurlow]

Lorraine, are you talking about an Epson Stylus Photo 1290??
I own one of these, didn’t know you could ‘adapt’ it 😮

Or is this another machine with the 1290 reference??

Steve 😀

[Lorraine Buchan]

Yes it’s the Epson Stylus Photo 1290 with normally a black cart and a 5 colour combined cart (inc. light cyan & light Magenta) which can be very costly on ink.

Look into a bulking system if your doing alot of sublimation printing, quite costly up front, but will save loads in the long run

[Linda]

Thanks Kevin,
I’d love to go but UNFORTUNATELY 😆 I shall be taking my sunshine break in Menorca that week (maybe I can convince the family to cancel)