Mug Press / Sublimation Advice

[John & Dawn Roddick]

Don’t know the answer myself but I would suggest contact Listawood Trade Supplies on 01485 529742. They sell sublimation equipment and supplies and will be able to answer your question.

Dawn

[Alison Falzon]

Well I thought they’d be able to tell me, but that’s one of the suppliers I asked (and xpress), and the lady there said they didn’t know!

[julia_williscroft]

Hi

One of our customers has a Magic Touch mug press and is using it for sublimation printing although, if I recall correctly, he did say the results can be variable.

We have also tested one ourselves, also with variable results, the main problem being with the mugs cracking.

I think that it may be possible to use this mug press but you may have to sacrifice some mugs in order to work out possible settings that would work successfully.

Hope that helps.

Julia

[Jim Clough]

Why not try the mug wraps? They’re only just over £20. You put the mug in, clamp it and put in oven. Takes longer than press but some people use a number of wraps, half in oven half being prepared to swap over. I have one but not had time to try it out yet but have not heard a bad word about them.
Cheers
Jim

[Paul Rollason]

I have heard, however I have not tried it yet, that you can
attach the transfer/subli paper to the mug with heat proof tape (£5 ish)
for a whole roll and then pop them in the oven,

This would be a cheap way to get into mug printing.

and it also cooks pizza 🙂

Paul R(Mackerelbus Design)

[Alison Falzon]

Hello

The “oven clamp” sounds good. It might be a bit of a nightmare with just the heat tape, gettting it wrapped on so tight, but I already have a roll of heat tape, so I’ll give it a go as well.

It won’t be for a little while yet coz I’ve not yet got the printer.

Thank you all for that info,

Ali

[Dave Bruce]

You can get a mug wrap for this on Ebay at the moment £35, looks like a cheap way to start.

Dave

[Kevin.Beck]

I looked at the magic touch clamp/press.

must say it looked far too much agro.

i bought a mug press from knovachrome, it takes a few seconds to tape the paper to the mug and then place in the clamp.

by far less agro.

[AlexTurner]

Hi

We’ve tried to get this kind of press to work for customers in the past, but so far with very little success.

Typically the coating on the mugs will start to show signs of burn, even though the image has not been fully transferred in other areas.

If sublimation is the way you want to go, I think that you have a couple of options:

1. Use some kind of convection heat – ie, domestic oven with the paper wrapped around tightly with tape. OR oven with mug clamps.

2. Get hold of a mug press.

Option 1 would enable you to have a go with the process without spending too much.

Which option you decide to use longterm will depend upon the kind of work you are planning to do.

For example, we decorate very large volumes of mugs for the promotional market. Convection ovens are the obvious choice for us. (capable of producing many hundreds of mugs per hour, high quality, etc)

Some of our customers on the other hand, are doing very short runs and prefer the convenience and often portability of the mug press. (easier to switch on and off throughout the day, light weight, etc)

If you would like to get in touch with me to discuss further, please feel free.

Kind Regards
Listawood Trade Supplies

Alex.

Tel: 01485 529742.

[Alison Falzon]

Thanks for all that info.

I will give you a call Alex in the next couple of days,

Ali