11oz Mug Heat and time settings

[noddy6560]

Good morning Guys.

My first ever post so please be gentle.
Just bought the whole jing bang. Cameo Silhouette 3 vinyl cutter, Epson WF-2630 Printer running sublimation ink and 8 in 1 chinese heat press.
Just loving my new hobby. I used to pyrography, scrollsaw and various other things, but the time things used to take to make started to disillusion me.
This new hobby at least gets you results much quicker.
As i said, my first post but i have been reading loads on here. I know it`s one of the most common questions with so many answers but looking for some guidelines to try today as my disasters are now becoming more than my "well i got away with that" mugs.
MY PROBLEM.
I set my mug press to 400o Fahrenheit.I then place my cold mug with printed sub paper taped on into the press and close the handle. The temp then drops down to around 340o f -350o f. This can take a while to come back up 400o f and then i start my countdown timer for 60 seconds.
When the mug comes out the transfer paper can be anything from light fawn to to dark fawn in colour. I take off the paper immediately and sometimes i am am getting fawn on the image of the mug and more annoying tiny specks of ink which aren`t visible on the image before taping on.
Can i have any advice from you guy re, should i warm the mug first?, is my temp too high, do i start the timer once the press comes back up to temp. Just any suggestions at all really.
Fantastic site, only joined yesterday, but loads of great reading. Congrats on a gr8 forum
noddy
Aberdeenshire
Scotland

[paul 44]

What paper and mugs are you using?
400f seems a little high, usually for me its around 350f to 374 f for the full time, usually 3 minutes or thereabouts (after the press has come back up to temp) i get no burning black inks (black inks turn brown)

all in all the mug will be in there for 4-5 minutes (for me anyway) with no problems and peel hot

[webtrekker]

I insert mug, wait until temp reaches 180°C/356°F then cook for 180 to 200 seconds.

Your unwanted specks could be caused either by trapped dust from previous prints or, most likely, by stray pixels in your image, or ink spatter from your printer. Try looking at your printed wrap with a good magnifier (I use 40x magnification). Even the tiniest, virtually invisible speck will come out larger when printed on the mug.

To test for stray pixels in Photoshop I usually make all the outside area of the image transparent then select the layer. The selection box should be almost touching the extremities of your image. If it isn't, then you have stray pixels outside of the image making the selection bigger and they must be erased.

[Mrteajunkie]

For what I have been told you should always put the mug in the press before powering up.

so for me...

Tape design to mug and insert mug into press
Close press around mug on a medium pressure
Power on press @ 180c for 3 mins
Turn off press and remove mug
Peel off paper and tape whilst hot
Rest mug on top of another cold mug until cool to touch.

If more than one mug is being produced I still power off press whilst loading new mug.

[RichG]

For what I have been told you should always put the mug in the press before powering up.

so for me...

Tape design to mug and insert mug into press
Close press around mug on a medium pressure
Power on press @ 180c for 3 mins
Turn off press and remove mug
Peel off paper and tape whilst hot
Rest mug on top of another cold mug until cool to touch.

If more than one mug is being produced I still power off press whilst loading new mug.

Hi Mrteajunkie could you please explain why you turn the press off if you have other mugs to press please? Does it give the next mug more time to warm up?

[Fletcher]

Hi Mrteajunkie could you please explain why you turn the press off if you have other mugs to press please? Does it give the next mug more time to warm up?

I dont know about Mrteajunkie, but the reason I turn the press of after is to allow it to cool down so it gives the next mug more heating up time, and also so I don't burn out the heat element as its heating without a mug in it.