Mugs, do you put in warm water or not?.....

[carolm1a]

Hi everyone

So, ive been told both theories. One said yes and one said no.

Once finished put into luke warm water, the other person said leave to cool.

Which do you do? I tried luke warm and the cup cracked LOL, obviously not "warm" enough.

Carol x

[Customprintwales]

I just leave them to cool naturally.

I don't get orders that are so urgent or rushed that they can not wait an hour to cool down before packing.
Generally any orders I get up to 2.00pm on a day can be printed and left to cool before packing and sending to the post office by 5.00pm.

[carolm1a]

thank you - im going to go the cool way i think. Having to rush a hot cup through the house to a bowl of water isn't my idea of fun LOL

[UK Printed Mugs]

The main reason for cold dunking a mug is to prevent gasses from continuing to sublimate after removing from a mug press. This becomes more apparent when working with wording as you may find the wording looks "smudged" after 5-10 minutes after removal. Not all Mugs can be dunked though and indeed some lower quality mugs will crack. The best mugs for not cracking when cooled in water are Xpres 5013. Alternative method for mugs that may crack is to have desktop fan pointed at hot mugs.

[James990]

I let all my mugs cool naturally, no matter how many orders I have.

[webtrekker]

I tried both methods and, to be honest, dunking them straight into lukewarm water made absolutely no difference to the quality of the print compared to letting them cool naturally, so now I save myself the hassle and just let them stand a while to cool.

If you want them out fairly quick then maybe find yourself a wire stand from an old grill pan or something to allow the air to circulate better around the bottom of the mugs.

[James990]

I use some wire stand thingies I bought from Ikea, just the job!

[carolm1a]

well, I've had an epic fail and i dont know what I've done I put 2 mugs on at 190 for 9 minutes, I stood them normal way up on the bottom of the heat press. I did see some videos that seemed to have a grill on the bottom but ours hasn't got one.

It seems to be perfect at the top and nothing at the bottom. gggrrrr

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[webtrekker]

Wow! Nine minutes is a long time in the press!

What press do you have? Are you sure your temperature is set to Celsius and not Fahrenheit?

Maybe try turning a mug upside down half way through pressing. Mind you, your whole print looks faded to me.

[carolm1a]

We have a ST3042, its 190 C definately I can't find the correct key for the little "o". The design is quite light as its a watercolour image but the top is fine im wondering if i need to put a grill in the bottom.