John G wrote:Couple of questions:
Does he have a kiln to fire the mugs after printing
Do laser mugs scratch off
How much is this specialist toner - basic laser toner is about £80 per colour
Why does he have a spoil rate of 1 in 20
Cheers John
Hi John,
Flash (phil) has been talking about me so i decided to sign up and fill you in
I am using an OKI c5600 printer with standard oki toner altho' i would expect to get the same results from compatible toners, I'll let you know when i try.
My " Kiln" is our gas oven at gas mark 7 for 30 min's
I haven't got a dishwasher but i find it near impossible to scratch the print after it has been baked on and I haven't had any complaints from customers , yet
And my spoil rate is not cos i'm not very good as some peeps would have you believe (

Thanks Phil

) but because cheap mugs can have flaws and the sudden heating in the mug "press" can cause these flaws to expand and crack the mug.
This evening i printed up 36 mugs and one cracked.
The other factor affecting the spoil rate is that the mug clamps expand slightly and after a while there is not enough pressure at the top and bottom of the transfer so the toner does not transfer properly producing a spoiled mug. I have overcome this by printing about 6 mugs then waiting a while for the clamp to cool before starting again (i put the clamps in the fridge for a few mins).
Like most things its a game of trial and error and it just takes a while to find what suits your situation.