Placemats, pre-heating and the catch 22!

[AdamB]

Hi guys,

I have been meaning to post this and for some reason I woke up this morning and thought it's got to be the first thing I do when I switch on the laptop.

So, we all know that pre-heating the placments helps to remove any moisture in them and we all know that once a placemat has been 'cooked' it's good to put something heavy on them to avoid the 'bend' staying after it's cooled ......

...... but, what do you do when you pre-heat a placemat - then get a bend and then try to get an image taped to the placemat for pressing ?

Is it just me, or is this extremely arkward?

[smitch6]

thats where doing images of banana's is always handy

lol sorry adam couldn't resist :~

i've never done any but keep thinking i might 1 day though

[Andrew]

I've never preheated placemats. Unisub style don't have a porous surface so don't see the need. If a little moisture rises from the backing it shouldn't affect the print. Just store them in a dry place.

[AdamB]

Thanks Andrew, I only use unisub placemats also but I read somewhere (think it was on here) that it doesn't matter where you store them as they still attract a little moisture into them?

I have them in a box in a cupboard and it is VERY DRY .................. out of interest Andrew, what time and temp do you press them at?

Many thanks

Adam

P.S - Thanks for that Steve, is that the first bit of fruit that came into your head ................ strange! I read somewhere that if a banana is the first fruit you think of in a situation then you need more vitamin C !

P.P.S Please let's not move this discussion into a banana themed thread!

[Andrew]

Hi Adam,

We use 195c for about 60 seconds. We rarely do placemats these days but do large runs of coasters, so the same material. We do see the odd water droplet develop on the coasters etc but no big deal. I also see many on here use lower temps for things like coasters and even mugs. I personally find you get a more vibrant colour at the above temps. The only thing we drop down to 180/85 is silver metal due to the coating being a bit softer under the higher temps and melting.

[JSR]

I don't pre-heat them. If it looks like moisture is a problem, I just press for longer to ensure a good print. But I think my heat press is different to everyone else's because I could never press a placemat in 60s. I can't even press a coaster in 60s.

I sometimes wish that UniSub would sort the "bend" problem out because it's a real pain in the neck when doing an order of a couple of dozen placemats - there just isn't enough space to lay them all out with a ton of weight on top of each one. Surely they can produce placemats that don't bend so much?

[AdamB]

Interesting Guys - as always it's very much appreciated

[mgibbs]

Maybe Martin could add a cider press to his hardware inventory - I'm sure that'd do the job

Mark