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Sublimation start up help
I’m thinking of dipping my toe into sublimation printing as the idea has appealed to me for a number of years…
I have a budget of between £1000 – £1500 depending on whether I go for an A4 or an A3 printer
I’m looking for advice on whether start-up packages are worth the money or would it better to source items individually?
Printer wise the Ricoh SG3110DN (A4) and the Ricoh SG7100DN (A3) crop up a lot in the starter packages using the Sawgrass ink….can anyone shed any light on whether these are the prefered option to an Epson or such like (it seems the Epsons are more prone to clogging if the printer isn’t used regularly ??) Will I be limiting myself too much going with A4 as opposed to A3
I think I understand the pitfalls of the cheaper heat presses…..uneven temperatures, uneven pressure and just general lack of build quality but are there any budget entry level machines that are worth considering? I think I would be happy buying a second hand heat press if anyone is looking to get rid ?? Are the multi presses worth it or is better to buy seperate flat press and mug press etc ??
At first I will be looking to supply a few organisations I already have contacts with ie Football League, Basketball league, Camera Club etc. I’m not sure about adding a vinyl cutter at the moment and if I do I realise my budget will have to increase but at the minute i just want to concentrate on the printing possibilities
Apologies for all the questions but any help or advice would be very much appreciated
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12 Replies
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Hi Glenn
I have Richo gx 7000 with extra attachment to make it A3+ dont use it alot sometimes a month or two but always leave it switched on and prints like new after one click clean. Saw grass inks are good only used those, I would also go for a swing away press and seperate mug press etc, as did have a all in one but tempreture use to vairy too much. I am looking at getting rid of my set up if your interested pm me -
I have a Richo A4 with Sawgrass gell inks, mug press and large flat press, all bought through BMS Printer Owners. First printer I bought went in the bin after 12 months due to head clogging. Dont do much now, and dont have problems with the Gel drying out….
Martin is your contact at BMS
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I have the ricoh GXE7700n A3, large TMT adkins press (very old!) and a cheap mug press, prob around £2500 all in if all bought new, used presses come up from time to time so worth looking and getting the bigger one.
while I have the A3, I use A4 more often so you could save a lot of money going with the smaller A4 printer.
depending on how I proceed with sub in the business – I’ve also been considering a larger epson 24" printer converted to dye sub and an A1 press – all rather expensive mind!
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We’ve been sublimation printing for about 3-4 Years and still using all of the kit daily – plus the Flat press we bought gets used pressing clothing vinyl and printed Garment media from our Roland. (We also use some of the Laser Printed Transfer Papers from The Magic Touch)
We bought our equipment from XPRES and The Magic Touch, we have a Ricoh GX7000 A3 Printer, flat large swing away press (Adkins), Single Adkins Mug Press and about 12 months ago we bought a double Adkins Mug Press.
We have never had any blockages or blotching from the printer it has run faultless (I hope I have not jinxed it!).
My advice is do not go for a cheap press, to get a good print result you need a constant pressure and temp,
It took a while to get the Colour Management settings right in Corel Draw and Photoshop and this was worth doing to ensure what you see on the screen is actually what it looks like after printing and pressing.
We only use Sawgrass inks and TruePix paper and the Results are excellent, especially on the Metal Products.
We use various suppliers for the printables, although I’m sure a lot of the products come from the same manufacturer. We Use, TMT, XPRES, BMS and recently Coralgraph.
If you want any more info let me know
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Thanks for all the help so far…..
Lee..I think I would prefer to buy the printer from new, I don’t have PM facility but would you mind giving me some info on your press if you are willing to sell separately?
Nick…thanks for the info…..could I ask you what you print on the A3 that you couldn’t on the A4 ?
Is it a physical size thing or is it you can just print more multiples on a single sheet?Graeme….what make was your first printer that went in the bin?
Thanks again chaps
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Hi I have 2 novachrome mug press and a adkins awayswing press which I also use for clothing, Press is good for when you do thicker things like the acrylic and wood blanks , I only want to get rid of it as I am too busy with everything else. do you have a email?
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Hi Lee….I have but I believe it’s against forum rules to post it
I’m not sure how to work around it 😕
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Good point I forget these things sometimes, I think you can click my web address button tho to find mine.
ok my apologies if this is against the boards rules I am not trying to something wrong
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The things we do A3 size – on largish runs it’s handy printing bigger sheets. Plus we do Large Wooden jigsaws, Photo boards, chromlux panels etc.
Looking at Paper orders we go through about 7 boxes of A4 to every 1 of A3
plus even though we do not do a lot of Sublimation Garment printing (we prefer either TMTs Soldark on our Roland or their Laser Papers) when we do we can get bigger designs on the T-Shirt in one go without having the tricky job of lining up sheets of A4 etc
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Lee your a full UKSG member, you should be able to PM Glen even though he can’t PM you. Just PM him with your contact details :lol1: :lol1:
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"Lee your a full UKSG member, you should be able to PM Glen even though he can’t PM you"
Well I didn’t know that 🙂
Cheers
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Thanks for all the help on this one….I’m now sifting through all the suppliers trying to put together a decent start up package based on what’s been said
Cheers
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