WANTED - Coaster jig

[socialgiraffe]

Nice idea SG, but won't this mean that your printer needs to feed dead accurately each time? I've had many printers that don't, and a slight skewing of the printed sheet would knock the alignment out. Just my thoughts, and I may be wrong.

Yes and no

I currently use a 1500W which is pretty accurate. I think a tolerance of .5mm is more than acceptable. Working to tighter margin would be insane. I personally would work to a 1mm margin on live area and would add a 1mm bleed to compensate for it. That would cover it for me.

The alternative would be to trim the sheet after it has printed, this will ensure 100% accuracy every time.

As I do not print coasters this is about as far as I want to go on the idea

[webtrekker]

I don't print coasters either SG, so I think I'll leave it there too!

[bigj2552]

I have an alternative contact for cut metal if it helps anywhere down the line. This does seem a lot of 'faff' for something we've all been printing for years without issues!

totally agree here but.....

the UK sub/trade suppliers can and could make them sort the problem with the backing if, and only IF, they stopped buying from them, or at least threatened to....
but that raises another but....

the UK sub suppliers aint gonna risk that, and beside they also know that we all have to buy some form of coaster. Whether bms own make, unisub or solejuice ones..the UK sub suppliers have the UK sellers by the shirt n curlys IMHO, and they know that as well - not bloody rocket science to see that is it ? - take our coasters as they are, or dont = tuff ! :rolleyes:

so much for looking after ones own sub-trade customers in the UK eh ? - the UK sub/trade supplies have no balls, or this would have been sorted long ago - end of !

[webtrekker]

Well, the UK suppliers probably have huge stocks of these that they are now realising are not really fit for purpose. Some may be waiting for their suppliers, in China or elsewhere, to sort the problem, and others may just be hoping they can sell them 'as-is' and that the problem will go away.

[Tubstar]

So I have tried the Jig from xpres, its too thick, made of mdf and provides very poor results. Fading in different places each time have killed about 80 coasters so I have given up. I would definitely be up for developing and custom jig.

The MDF one is really thick, I guess to prevent warping over time but it seems to absorb heat at different rates maybe. That's the only explanation I can come up with at the moment.

Looking at the picture someone uploaded (I should check back on who but I've had a couple of drinks tonight and cant be bothered) I would say that looks good but could maybe benefit from a couple of extra holes at the sides to allow fingers to get a grip of the coaster and remove it easier.

In essence, If we got 10 or so people interested I think we could get these made relatively cheap. I don't mind funding it tbh as I guess I could flog them on ebay afterwards to get back some of the costs. Would just take some hassle in the first place to get sorted. It seems it would fix the backing issue, and make larger runs much more cost efficient.

Alex.

[webtrekker]

Ok, been thinking about this. Please bear with me as I don't have time to prepare any sketches yet.

It seems to me that the taping is what's causing the problem (I know, 'No shit Sherlock!' but just follow this through....)

Let's try NOT taping the print to the coasters. We all know aluminium sheet conducts heat so well that the recommended method for printing aluminium sheets is to place the sheet ON TOP OF the print.

So, let's suppose we pop our coasters face up into a jig (mdf, aluminium, whatever) that has a thin aluminium panel hinged to one end of the jig so that it folds over onto the coasters.

Now all that needs to be done is to tape the print to the underside of the hinged aluminium sheet so that the print will land accurately on the coasters when closed. Then simply bung the whole assembly into the press and heat will be immediately conducted through the aluminium sheet and sublimation of the coasters will begin.

Sorry for the long explanation, hope you all understood what I'm getting at.

[technick]

For those with printers which do not print straight - have thin lines lasercut around the outer edges of the jig in 0.5mm increments. You will need to then create bleed marks on your paper and pre cut them to fit slightly smaller than A3/A4, which will line up with the inner jig alignment lines.

[Andrew]

New coaster jig ready to trial.

[kbho]

New coaster jig ready to trial.

Have you done any test prints using the Jig yet?