can you use same image

[scottc123]

hi thinking about getting a mug press just wanted to know if you can use the same printed image over and over again .?

[Justin]

No, the idea is just to use them once. I have seen folk get a second print but the quality diminishes. For how much a print costs it just isn't worth it

[bms]

Not really. The vast majority of the ink comes away after the first press. You'll probably get a much faded image transfer if you tried again (not good enough to sell). So you'll get some form of transfer but very faded. You'll need a new print for the next product.

[Paul]

as boys said... no. but whats the point if 1 mug transfer cost you about 40p?? is no point to waste blank mug and get faded transfer.

[scottc123]

can anyone help me with sublimation ink ? how much is it where can i get it cheap ? and if it is about £50 for one color how wud i ever make a profit printing mugs ect ? seen on lovecut they hav ink at £30 for a few colors it says its for printing mugs ect has anyone used this ink or used lovecut before ? thank u

[Paul]

lovecut dont sell sublimation ink.

[John G]

Its like any new process - there's bound to be an initial expense at first as you need to buy all the equipment. As Paul said Lovecut doesn't sell sub ink, just empty cis or dye ink.

Cheers John

[Justin]

Small format sublimation ink is protected here in the UK so you can only officially use Sawgrass approved inks, Artainium, Rotech and so on. You're looking at £60 per 125ml of each colour. Yes it's a big outlay but when you work out the cost of a print there's plenty of room for a good profit

[JSR]

can anyone help me with sublimation ink ? how much is it where can i get it cheap ? and if it is about £50 for one color how wud i ever make a profit printing mugs ect ? seen on lovecut they hav ink at £30 for a few colors it says its for printing mugs ect has anyone used this ink or used lovecut before ? thank u

It's not as expensive as it sounds. £60 (inc VAT) gets you 125ml of officially licensed (i.e. "legal") Sawgrass ink - which is 48p per ml. When you buy genuine ink from the printer manufacturer (OEM ink), you're invariably paying about £10 for a cartridge containing 10ml of ink - which is £1 per ml.

So you can see that, although the initial outlay seems high, the cost of the ink is actually less than a half of the cost of OEM ink. You can buy in larger quantities to save even more, but that means an even higher initial outlay.

The bigger businesses use large format printers (costing over £2000) and are able to buy more economical sublimation ink because the Sawgrass patent only applies to desktop printers. This is clearly the better option when you have many large orders coming in.

In short, you either pay more for the ink and less for the printer, or more for the printer and less for the ink. Either way, you initially need big pockets. Or, to look at it another way, if it was cheap to start up then everyone would be doing it and you'd have no customers.

You need to do some calculations, work out your business plan, and seek out your customers so that you can work out selling prices that provide you with sufficient profit.