Money Box issues ...

[webtrekker]

Hi guys. Just joined and fairly new to the dyesub game.

I've had some success with mugs, but money boxes are proving tricky. I tried pressing one at 180 degrees/180 secs/medium pressure and after about 20 secs I hear a crack and discovered hairline cracks in the glaze leading from the slot to the top edge of the money box.

Ok. So I then pre-heated a money box to around 100 degrees, applied the transfer and pressed again. No cracking this time.

What I'm wondering is: Is it possible to affix the transfer first, pre-heat to 100 degrees, then press at 180 degrees for 3 minutes? Would the print start sublimating at 100 degrees or would it not matter?

Pleased to have found this wonderful forum and hope in future to be able to add my own tips.

[webtrekker]

Update:

I tried affixing the transfer before the pre-warm and then pressing at the recommended settings and it worked just fine. However, I'm still getting the odd one crack in the glaze near the money slot.

[bms]

What I'm wondering is: Is it possible to affix the transfer first, pre-heat to 100 degrees, then press at 180 degrees for 3 minutes? Would the print start sublimating at 100 degrees or would it not matter?

Nothing should happen at 100c but it will take some time to go from 100c to 180c so you wouldn't need a full 3 mins once 180c has been reached.

[webtrekker]

Thanks for that bms. The money boxes I have were 'thrown in' alog with the second mug press I bougt, and I suspect the quality is not great. They are a bit barrelled too. I was going to order some BMS money boxes but I see they are out of stock.

[webtrekker]

Hi webtrekker,

Hope you're well. We stock 10oz ceramic money boxes which we're confident should the good quality you are looking for.

You can find them here: http://www.longforte.com/110z-ceramic-money-boxes-36

If you have any questions feel free to drop us a line.

Kind regards,
Jay

Hi Jay, thanks for that.

I ordered a box of 36 of your money boxes to try out and they arrived today.

Good points:

• Sides fairly parallel, not much tapering off towards top or base.
• Print quality was excellent. Strong colours and very sharp.
• No cracking of the glaze near the slot when pressed.

Not-so-good points:

• Variation in heights.
• Some rough edges around the slots which detracts from the overall appearance.
• Not supplied in individual cardboard boxes.

However, none of the bad points were a deal-breaker for me and, as I've said, I'm especially pleased with the quality of print and the absence of cracking, which plagued the life out of me with the money boxes I had originally. I'll no doubt be ordering more through time.

(BTW, the picture on the Longforte site shows a money box with a flat top, which is not the same as the ones I receive, which have a dished top. I realise that this could just be a rendered illustration and not a real picture, but I was kind of hoping they'd look like the ones in the picture No worries though).

For anyone interested, I pre-heated these in a mug press at 110 deg c for 4 minutes (with the transfer already taped in place), then put straight into another mug press at 175 deg c for 3 minutes at medium pressure. I then immediately removed the transfer and left to air-cool.

[webtrekker]

Hi webtrekker,

Thanks for your message! I'm glad the prints came out well for you without any breakages. The other comments are also really valuable feedback which I'll pass on to our manufacturer so that we can continually improve our products, especially the packaging as we are keen on getting these with individual boxes as well as we believe it makes it easier to seller for retailers.

I'll have the team look at the image on our site as I believe it was photographed in our studio but if it needs to be changed then we can certainly do that.

Kind regards,
Jay

I'm impressed by your quick reply Jay and pleased also that you value your customers.

I can certainly print and sell the items I received from you and I suppose that's the main thing. There'll always be little niggles with any product, particularly ceramics, which aren't an exact science at the best of times!

At the end of the day, I have some money boxes with perfect prints and no cracks, so that will keep me happy for a while.

[webtrekker]

Update:

I've had at least 10 money boxes in my shipment of 36 with black specks, pinholes, rough money slot caused by ceramic dripping when made and irregular sizes/distortion.

The verdict is .......... I'm giving up on money boxes altogether, it's costing me more than I am making.

[Justin]

Yep, I cam to the same conclusion