Mug Sublimation Inconsistencies

[soulclaimed]

Hi,

I have recently started printing mugs again with a stand alone mug press and having really inconsistent results. Same mug brand, same pressure, same time and temperature, same paper, same inks and print settings but some prints are coming out perfect and some are coming out looking over cooked. I am pressing them at 180c for 210 seconds with firm pressure. My black text is also coming out brown but with the same setup yesterday it was jet black.

Any tips, is my temp and time too high? When I tried at 190 and 20 seconds it looked under cooked.

[webtrekker]

It's all down to trial and error, mainly, but I always found a good starting point was 180/180.

Where do you store your sub paper? This damp weather we've been having lately doesn't help.

[soulclaimed]

Paper is stored in the printer under my desk in my living room. Mugs have been stored in the living room too. It's just odd that one day it's perfect the next everything is the same but results are not

[Justin]

180c for 180secs is a good starting point,. blacks turning brown often indicates overcooking. Pressure firm but not overtight.

How old are the inks? Can you check the press temp is correct? IR gun ideally.

[soulclaimed]

180c for 180secs is a good starting point,. blacks turning brown often indicates overcooking. Pressure firm but not overtight.

How old are the inks? Can you check the press temp is correct? IR gun ideally.

Don't have an IR gun, I probably need one really. Inks are new in the last week or so and as I say we're pressing fine the day before. I tape my image to my mug.
I preheat the press with a spare blank mug in it until it reaches temperature and then swap out for my mug and start the count down. Should I change up my steps. It's been about 8 years since I have done this until now as used to frequent the forum 8-10 years ago lol

[Justin]

Quick thought, appreciate inks are new but did printer have old inks that needed flushing?

It does sound like overcooking at this point though.

[soulclaimed]

It looks like overcooking in all honesty, I will try a black text only design with 180c and 190 seconds to see how that goes and then 180c 180 seconds although that seemed to be undercooked last time but I think that is due to the press dropping temperature when I switch out the blank mug that I use during getting the temp to 180c and my mug with the paper as it drops a fair amount due to the room temp mug

[webtrekker]

My press used to drop around 20°C when changing mugs, so I used to wait until it reached 180°C again (with the mug in place) before starting the 180 sec countdown.

Personally, I got better results with a halogen oven, but it may just have been that my press wasn't the best.

I should add that I always found dunking the mugs immediately in warm water and peeling the wrap off underwater resulted in sharper prints.