[Mark Jahn]

No problem Ade. I’ll check their price in the meantime but they were pennies when I bought a dozen last month.

[Mark Jahn]

There’s a hardware store in our town that sells them singularly Ade. You want me to get some and post them to you?

[Mark Jahn]

North East Terry – the guys I use are in Newcastle and there are plenty of them around wanting the business hence the price I guess. That price I mentioned is for me to supply, deliver and collect the apparel.

[Mark Jahn]

I agree with Andy I’m afraid Terry. We looked at the embroidery market but up here I can get T’s / Polo’s etc done with a basic name and number for £3 per garment.

[Mark Jahn]

So far I’ve only used genuine Epson inks in our new 1400. The R285 is now relegated to printing invoices etc but was previously used for transfer paper printing. I’ve only ever used third party inks in the 285 (Pro Jet) which worked out at £10 for a set of 6.

Having printed the same images out using both printers onto Target Transfer’s paper the difference is quite noticeable. Where the reds and blues tended to bleed over an outline they now stay firmly in place and are altogether more vibrant.

I guess strictly speaking there should be profiles for third party inks which might improve them but for now I’m going to stick with Epson and build the price more into the finished product.

[Mark Jahn]

Try Wikimedia Commons. I’ve found some gems in the past – out of copyright / public domain.

[Mark Jahn]

I think the trick is in the shutting down/starting up Paul. Have you noticed when you do either the printer performs a mini clean… 😉

[Mark Jahn]

quote Graeme Harrold:

He will be doing frosted glass mugs soon as he gave me 3 to try, very nice.

I like the sound of that. The more he increases his range the more I’m using other suppliers less and less.

[Mark Jahn]

quote Paul Humble:

All round its a great printer, only needed to run the nozzle clean half a dozen times since April.

Have to agree with you Paul. Early on I learnt to make sure the printer was turned off straight after finishing printing to avoid head clogging. Can’t remember the last time I’ve had to do a head clean now.

[Mark Jahn]

Ahh..so Martin cleared you out then Graeme :lol1:

[Mark Jahn]

Printer Owners, Home to Gifts starting point.

Can’t fault our 1400 for dye sub, so much so we bought another last week off Amazon for £199. Plan ahead by opting for A3 and you’ll not regret it.

I’d never go second hand for anything dye sub related, particularly if you’re going to build a business around your set up.

[Mark Jahn]

On one of our machines we’ve got a kind of "post it notes" on the Vista sidebar but we used to have a program which acted like a permanent sticky post it notes on the desktop where we could type in to do lists etc. It was a constant reminder of all the outstanding jobs and was very handy when you consider how much time you spend staring at the monitor.

[Mark Jahn]

This is how we do it Marcella:

1. Open in Photoshop and convert to greyscale or desaturate.
2. Click Image>Adjustments>Threshold and move slider until getting the required shades.
3. Save as highest quality jpg.
4. Import jpg into Coreldraw and trace as black and white image.

In Photoshop there is also a trace facility that sometimes works well by using Filter>Stylize>Trace Contour.

[Mark Jahn]

Yes – we’re in Consett Paul, after 12 years in Gateshead. I think I know where you mean now though. For some reason I always confuse the QA with the Wearmouth and vice versa!

[Mark Jahn]

Sorry…I’m no help for what you want Paul but I was curious about the background in the photo – is that Websters Ropery or near to it?

[Mark Jahn]

I’m not sure about 12 oem but my X3 oem had no VBA. Uninstalled and went back to my full copy of 12 as a result. X4 is next on the list as soon as possible.

[Mark Jahn]

I’d used Fasthosts for years until we changed hosting after getting the Business Link grant.

We had one remaining package with fasthosts (a local community forum) which came up for renewal last week. What a carry on getting the dns changed over.

They’re a SME provider but I’ve not had a single problem with Red Rose Internet since changing over to them. Got everything with them now.

[Mark Jahn]

I’m familiar with the stretch Paul and agree with you. Mind you there’s something about the A19 Sunderland and south for me that I never feel comfortable about. Rather jump across the valley onto the A1.

[Mark Jahn]

Thanks both.

Peter, I think that’ll do what I need. Thanks again.

[Mark Jahn]

This has got to take some beating…

http://www.nikkor2d2.com/

[Mark Jahn]

Any good Kevin?

http://dir.coolclips.com/Household/Base … index.html

[Mark Jahn]

I must admit I checked out the website…some great ideas for Christmas presents 😀

[Mark Jahn]

http://www.plastics-direct.co.uk/

[Mark Jahn]

Very moving Harry.

Likewise, as John did, I posted on our site. Not a dry eye in the house.

[Mark Jahn]

I’d be interested in what you find out Paul. I’ve had a look on their site before and it’s quite tempting. I like the idea of doing personalised cufflinks – they look better than what I’m doing with dye sub at the moment.

[Mark Jahn]

Printer Owners Paul. 39p each if buying 100.

I’ve been using 6x6x6 single walled boxes I got from Lime Packaging though. They worked out at 23p each when I bought 100. I bung some of that polystyrene "quavers" shaped stuff in the bottom, mug on top wrapped in bubble wrap then more quavers around the sides and on top. Only one mug smashed in 6 months doing it this way.

[Mark Jahn]

If it was cotton/poly cotton polo’s I’d agree with you on the price Warren but with dye sub as Neil says you need to be looking at £15 for a basic profit to print front and back.

We sell the Vapor or Subli Soft T Shirts at £10 printed front only. £13 front and back and we’re buying them in from BMS at £3.17 for singles.

[Mark Jahn]

I’ve just done two perspex advertising boards for a customer. Reverse printed the vinyl because the customer specifically wants to mount the boards onto a white panel outside his premises and have the vinyl on the inside to prevent accidental damage, vandalism etc.

[Mark Jahn]

Have you got a link for the Target stuff Steve. I’m always disappointed with the dark transfer paper I use – the black of the T Shirt always tends to come through on the unprinted white section of my prints.

[Mark Jahn]

Paul – we print on the slimline mugs (the ones we’ve got are called Windsor’s and Steffi’s – one with a lip and the other without). They print very well when we use two silicon wrap between the mug and the press to build up the gap. Time is increased by 1 minute and temperature goes up to 210 to compensate for the presence of the wraps.

Re: Paper – we’ve got True Pix which I’m told is better for hard substrates. The other is Texprint which I think is more suited for T Shirts but I’ve never tried that. For me the True Pix does very well on T Shirts, mouse mats etc.

[Mark Jahn]

I’ve got a big box full of the stuff too.

Dare I suggest using the dreaded ebay word and making a few quid flogging the offcuts to budding T Shirt / Sign people?

I’ll get me coat 😳

[Mark Jahn]

£1.94 First / £1.63 Second John. Plus the cost of your cardboard/polystyrene box and fillings/bubble wrap.

[Mark Jahn]

£5 on our site. £4.50 at craft fairs etc (no transaction fee so what the heck)!

[Mark Jahn]

Hi Gordon.

From memory the reg marks printed an arrow to indicate the direction the paper goes in. When your paper is on the carrier board the edge of the board should line up with the back of the cutting mat. Once or twice we had problems but realigning it soon resolved the problem. Is your laser dirty or worn perhaps?

[Mark Jahn]

I think the 5000-40 is the baby brother of the 5000-60 but with a 400mm cutting width rather than 600mm. Same servo motor, same looking control panel. Only differences I can see from a glance is the absence of a stand and the cutting width.

[Mark Jahn]

If they’re really cold and time’s against me I put the blank mug in the press for 10 seconds just to take the chill off it. That’s usually enough for the heat to get through to the inside as well.

[Mark Jahn]

Mine are boxed in an uninsulated room and I usually get them out sitting at room temperature for an hour or so before printing. I’ve watched the mug press temperature drop enormously when I’ve put a cold mug in which I had to compensate for with extra time and I’m not as happy with the end result.

[Mark Jahn]

Or are you using a new batch of mugs possibly with different coating Paul?

[Mark Jahn]

I tried that Dave. Went into advanced options during install but the only "advanced" options were three other languages. Don’t suppose there’s such thing as a VB plug in is there? Or some other way to initialise Cutting Master?

[Mark Jahn]

You’re right Alan. I got the OEM copy. It wasn’t until I googled "X3 Visual Basic" that I found out the limitations.

Not to worry. X4 is looking a likely option for Christmas!

[Mark Jahn]

Kind of got the problem sorted. My version of X3 doesn’t have VBA included hence It’s refusal to cut/plot. Corel suggested manually removing the program and all registry values. You’d have thought with my serial number they could have just told me there was an absence of Visual Basic!

[Mark Jahn]

What about dye subbing them yourself Paul?

[Mark Jahn]

Have a look in your advanced video settings Earl. You may have a clone option as well as extended (which sounds like what you are currently using). If your hardware/software doesn’t give this option the only way off the top of my head would be to use a video splitter – they do this in our local PC shop.

[Mark Jahn]

:lol1:

I bet you I’m not!

With the cost of the paper and ink I’m working on somewhere in the region of £1 or less per A3. How does that compare with pigment?

[Mark Jahn]

It’s dye sub Andrew. Printing from my R1400 onto TruePix then heat pressing onto the polyester canvas.

Its the future 😉

[Mark Jahn]

Martin – I’m trialling some 100% polyester canvas from Home to Gifts. I’ve got both types and you’d never know it’s not canvas material. The 330gsm in particular is very thick and has a canvas effect to it. I’m told the thinner type at 280gsm makes it easier to fold so may be better suited for A4 and smaller.

http://www.hometogifts.co.uk/canvas.htm

Not cheap (compared to ordinary canvas) but you get 155cm wide in a metre and I reckon there should be enough for 10 A3 prints per length.

[Mark Jahn]

I’ll check the language in the morning Chris but thanks for the tip. Having only ever used Cutting manager I haven’t tried printing directly – is this an easier method and as versatile?

[Mark Jahn]

Just what I’ve been after for ages David – thanks for posting about the frames. I’m trying out dye sub canvas but so far have been selling just the print and not the frame. That’s about to change now though!

[Mark Jahn]

Thanks Chris – that rings a bell with something the retailer mentioned about visual basic but I haven’t heard back from him yet. If you do find out any more information on the issue I’ll be eternally grateful.

[Mark Jahn]

Thanks for the input guys.

Harry – I tried using the print command but bizarrely the cutter tries cutting the file name not the file! I couldn’t believe it when I saw it cutting "C://Windows/All Users…" etc etc" in the tiniest font i’ve ever seen!

Alan – tried uninstalling and reinstalling Cutting Master 2 both from the CD (Version 1.2) and also version 1.5 from the Graphtec site but still no joy.

[Mark Jahn]

Hi Simon. The way I do it with my CE5000 is to use the guides at the front of the machine and pull maybe 6 – 8 inches forward to make sure the vinyl is perfectly lined up. Using the Roll 1 setting the machine will pull it back for you so you don’t waste anything. I did a 16 foot off road tyre tread design last week and it didn’t shift at all. I don’t use the media stand at the back though. I just leave the roll on the floor and pull enough out to make sure the pinch rollers aren’t under too much pressure.

[Mark Jahn]

Mini T Shirts with or without the hangers & suctions at Printer Owners. I can’t make them quick enough!

http://www.printerowners.co.uk/sublimat … shirts.htm

[Mark Jahn]

Rick – colour change cost a bit more than your standard 10/11oz white mug but they’re an option nonetheless which needs no different setup for dye sub printing.

If a customer was giving me all their clothing etc orders I’d be doing 40 mugs for £3 including vat for them. Still a reasonable profit in it at that price.

[Mark Jahn]

Andrew – have you tried Printer Owners:

http://www.printerowners.co.uk/sublimat … oaster.htm

http://www.printerowners.co.uk/sublimat … cemats.htm

Pricewise I don’t know how they compare to Listawoods or Novachrome. I don’t tend to bother too much with other suppliers.

[Mark Jahn]

There was a good article in Printwear and Promotion magazine this month about DTG which made me realise how much is involved with the technology. It’s partly the price putting me off investing in it though and that age old problem of printing onto dark substrates.

I was shown a T Shirt recently which was apparently DTG printed.With a little stretch of the fabric I could see the design cracking immediately – a bit like a cheap vinyl print on stretchy material. I’m not sure whether this was in fact a DTG print though and I’d love to hear from any DTG printers about the durability of the print etc.

[Mark Jahn]

Hi Fiona.

It’s worth spending some time playing around with Robo Master Pro that came with your Graphtec. It’s a competent bit of software which you’ll grow out of in due course but whilst learning the ropes it should do you fine.

Corel X3 I believe can be picked up for £60 or so now, which will allow you to do much more with your designs but it’s another learning curve.

[Mark Jahn]

Gareth – as Neil says, you need to sort out the Profile to perfect the colours in your print. Chances are it’ll be Rotech, Artanium, Lyson etc so you could try using those profiles in turn and doing a test print to see which come out ok. I’ve occasionally chosen the D88 profile by accident when printing through my 1400 and the colours come out pretty well.

If your yellow isn’t coming through the tube from the CISS this will affect the end result. You can try removing the tube from the joint on the cartridge then drawing ink through it using a syringe then reattaching to the joint. Do a nozzle check print to see if the yellow is printing (can be hard to see on the paper in some lights) and then a head clean if necessary.

[Mark Jahn]

I lost out on supplying and decorating a strip for a girls football team recently although found out afterwards what the competitors price was. 11 tops, shorts and socks with sponsors logo (approx 15cm x 10cm) in red vinyl on front and number on the back….£175!

The customer has since found out what I do and I’ve had a fair bit of work off him recently including some t-shirts for the parents with the teams name and either Mum or Dad underneath on the back and I’m charging £7.50 for those.

[Mark Jahn]

Are these any good from Printer Owners Cheryl? No minimum order either.

http://www.printerowners.co.uk/sublimat … d-pole.htm

[Mark Jahn]

Thanks Duncan and Lynn.

[Mark Jahn]

This any good James?

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s … m#wp999869

[Mark Jahn]

Yes – the plug in was on the Graphtec disc that came with my 5000 – it should show up within the menu that pops up on your screen after inserting the disc. You can check whether it’s installed by clicking on the Launcher icon in Corel and looking for "Cut/Plot"

[Mark Jahn]

Hi Rob.

A couple of other dye sub suppliers for you to try: BMS (Printer Owners) and Home to Gifts.

As for printers I can’t fault my R1400 with Rotech ink. Staples have knocked £50 off them, bringing the price down to £249.99 (even beating Amazon!). From memory the Rotech ink + CISS for the £1400 came to £255 +vat.

I only use a cheapo chinese mug press and I find the results very good. I can’t bring myself to shell out £500+ just for a mug press!

Clothing – Vapor, SmarTee, Xpres. Other items like coasters, keyrings etc stick with the Unisub brand.

[Mark Jahn]

Are you after polyester for dye sub Karen? I found some t shirt vests at our local wholesaler recently and they told me they were waiting on a delivery of full suits (also in polyester).

[Mark Jahn]

Hi Derek and thank you. Looks like you got the luck with the weather today mate. The sun’s threatening to come out up here!

[Mark Jahn]

Thanks Andrew, David, John. Look forward to chatting to you all.

[Mark Jahn]

Thanks Rob, Nicola, Peter, Glen, Adrian & Phil. Much appreciated.

[Mark Jahn]

Tracey – on another sublimation forum there’s a good post from Martin of Printer Owners about issues with continuous ink on a 285 which might help you. When you find the forum look for the username mbroad.

I had exactly the same issues with my D88 some months ago and there’s a long thread started by me on that forum which could also give you some pointers. Absolutely no support from the supplier and despite all the good advice I was given on that forum I couldn’t get it sorted. In the end I got a 1400 instead and haven’t looked back since.

[Mark Jahn]

I’d maybe look into it a bit more before parting with your hard earned Tracey. I’m going to do some more research on this. The potential sounds great but I don’t want to be lumbered with a faulty printer in no time if it all goes wrong.

I saw on Magic Touch website that some of the paper refers to being compatible with "oil less toner laser printers" whatever that means. Yet another thing to look into! Does this mean the likes of the £99 printer on special offer at Staples at the moment would be hopeless – even as an entry level into this method of printing?

Mark

[Mark Jahn]

I keep looking at this stuff as an alternative to dye sub but as Hugh mentioned I’m told that modified printers are necessary for TTC (something to do with a modified fuser unit and fuser engine settings). Someone I know bought a run of the mill laser printer from PC World and uses TTC with it but he has said the printer is now all "gunged up". Perhaps that’s why modifications are necessary?

[Mark Jahn]

Hi John. I’m new to the forum (hi everyone as well!) but followed your thread avidly over the weeks with great interest. I’ve been in the position where colours caused me no end of problems. The only thing I would suggest from personal experience is that before tweaking/changing your settings in your software and/or print properties try to keep a note of what settings you currently have. With so many variables it can be easy to change something then find the colours come out terrible. I did a few screen grabs of my Photoshop colour settings, profile settings and Epson ICM settings as a back up. Saved me a lot of bother!

Well done for producing some great sub prints with the settings you currently have though.