Keeping heat press clean when pressing sublimation T shirts

[Boyan]

Hi,
as we all know paper on top of platen below T shirt and another one on top of sublimation paper will keep the press clean. I was tired one day though of throwing so much paper / approximately 5 cents per sheet/ . So i decided to put aluminum foil below the T shirt.

Oh, yeah. That worked. Cheaper and most of all will last days. The best thing is you will not need to change it on every shirt. The sublimation ink simply does not stick to it at all. all is much cleaner now and easier to slide the T shirts on and off. Saves a lot of time.

It stays all the time on my lower platens, even when sublimating aluminum business cards and alu plates. And it sticks very well to the spongy silicone.

Hope that helps.

[logobear]

great tip.
I am guessing you are using a really thick catering grade of foil, not thin domestic?

[Boyan]

great tip.
I am guessing you are using a really thick catering grade of foil, not thin domestic?

Domestic roll of foil. 1.5euro or something like that, 30 meters

[GoonerGary]

Does the aluminium not reflect heat messing around with your temperature? I remember accidentally leaving an aluminium cup in the mug press for 20 mins. When I went to press the next mug, the paper stuck to the mug. I assumed that the press had gotten too hot.

I use an oversized teflon/ baking sheet over the platen which doesn't rip and allows the ink to be wiped off easily.

[Boyan]

Does the aluminium not reflect heat messing around with your temperature? I remember accidentally leaving an aluminium cup in the mug press for 20 mins. When I went to press the next mug, the paper stuck to the mug. I assumed that the press had gotten too hot.

I use an oversized teflon/ baking sheet over the platen which doesn't rip and allows the ink to be wiped off easily.

No problem. Aluminum transfers heat when in tight contact. i use same aluminum between silicone wrap and paper, for mugs. At 205C and no problem.

I sell and make 65/35 Russell T shirts at a retail location, so every mistake costs me exactly 6 euro from my pocket including ink and paper, so i learned pretty quickly some details like protect the base clean, clean dust from t shirt and cut around designs by hand to avoid even a small dot so result is perfect.

[Boyan]

PS. Where is the picture from my first post?