Mugs 101 - Over What We Went (If you are new, read this)

[RobertB1]

Hello lads


Maybe this can be "all-we-can" thread As many, we went through the painful process. From faded, burn-out, ghosted, inconsistent mugs, one-side well printed, another faded, top well printed - bottom faded...


We've tried it all. So, after all, we upgraded the heat press, then we smash down SG2100 and upgraded it with 3110 and Sublisplash colors, we tried this and that...


After all, this what we know now and don't try to smart-out the system is :
1. If you have a shi**y mug with shi**y coating you can only draw smilies with permanent marker on it I don't want to say what we tried all because I don't wanna be sued, but some of the big boys are selling really big poo (no they're not based in the UK).


2. Maybe some have luck with some bulk market colors, for us big nooo. Sublisplash is the king (for sure, we didn't try them all, and I don't work for Subli, and I bet that Sawgrass and some other bigger names are also good )


3. Paper. OOOh, how paper can kill your print, colors etc. Important is that paper is thicker so can quickly absorb the color. TexPrint-R is really great, cool natural colors. TruePix can make red tones more pink with Sublisplash colors.


4. Heat Press and times. There is one thing, you have to test it. For us there is a simple recipe: put a mug in a press, wait till temperature reach 180C, then burn it for 180 seconds. Mugs used 11oz Orca or Duraglaze. For enamel mugs, time down to 150. I made a few from top to bottom designs/prints, they are without the slightest error.


5. Don't try to save, especially from the start, because your blackhole is gonna hurt :biggrin: Many lads here know their work and if I had read it before, I wouldn't burn few hundreds of euros


Now, because I'm from Southern Europe I'm looking where I can get the easiest Orca or Duraglaze blanks (11oz, 12oz, enamel, cola bottle, 12 Latte, and metal mugs). So if any of you guys know some lads from Germany, Austria I will be very happy and thankful. I know for 2 big boys from China (not BestSub), one of them is the main producer for Printful and other POD giants, but for now I'm to small for their quantities, till next year

All the best to all and good business,
Robert

[RobertB1]

Here you can see a difference between 2 cheap no name brands. I don't even know what coating they use. The main difference is in color vibrancy and coating quality.


Aha... sorry for my language, I explained to my friend.

[pisquee]

The biggest thing which ties all of these things together - ink, paper, substrate and press settings is the ICC profile -you could have the best quality ink on the market, but if you haven't got an ICC profile to tie it in with your paper, printer and substrate then you're printing blind essentially.

[Boyan]

I started right away printing on AAA quality mugs, especially when i saw A qualiy mug. yep, double the price but that 70 cents go to the client and i don't sell crap. And the mug has a stamp at the bottom that says resistant to this and that, which sells, cause does not look like a Chinese one. Quality matters.