Image appears yellow on mug..! Why?

[PetPals]

Hi all,

My first post so I'm hoping someone can help...

I have a new Ricoh GX e3300n printer, some sublimation paper, some sublimation mugs from coralgraph and a mug press. It is a cheap mug press but as I'm not doing this to make money I'm hoping that it will do for me.

Here is the what I do.

I print the graphic on the paper - it always looks fine with good sharp colours (have tried both sides in case I was using the wrong side)
I then heat up the press according to instructions
I tape the graphic to the mug (ink side nearest mug, blank side facing out)
Place mug in press and leave (I have tried different times from 2 minutes to 7 minutes)
When I remove the paper I have a very, very hot mug with a faint yellow image on it and no other colours.

I am using the ink that came packaged with the printer and use the driver from the disc supplied.

My question is does anyone know what I am doing wrong? Why would the different colours on the image all appear yellow on the mug? If I were to leave the mug in longer would the other colours come true?

I have attached a few pictures for you to see.

PS: Lutonbury is a family festival I hold every year for the children, I thought it would be nice to have mugs for the day.... I now have 12 ruined mugs - if it continues like this, I'll have to set up a mug smashing stall..! At least the children will like it..

[smitch6]

are you using sublimation ink?
if your using sub paper and the image looks clear and sharp on the paper it shouldn't
when sub ink prints on the paper it's really dull

[smitch6]

from looking at your printer i'd say they are the standard inks that came with it and not sub inks
although i don't have a Ricoh so can't advice what they should look like though so may be wrong
where did you get it from? and did they say it was sub ink?

[PetPals]

I've phoned the supplier and they confirmed the printer came with gel ink... not sublimation ink. They also said that Ricoh does not advise using it for dye sublimation... I've looked on this forum and many people seem to be using it for that so I'll bite the bullet and order some 'proper' sublimation ink.

Thanks... I'm so happy that my cheap mug press isn't the problem as I like the colour orange -

Any advice on best place to get the ink from?

[Paul]

let me disapoint you bit more ;( (sorry) you would preffer it to be a press fault as it would be cheaper to replace. Now even if you will buy sublimation ink you can not just place it to your printer now as there is a LOT of normal ink in it now. And i dont know if there is a way to take it somehow out.

[PetPals]

Oh... hadn't thought of that. Maybe I could load the new ink cartidges and then print loads of A4 photos of something so that the gel ink is used and the sub ink gets through... probably means wasted ink but I'm hoping that the contamination in the printer pipes won't be too much of a problem. Do you think it will be?

Here comes the technical question - do you know how many A4 photos approximately it would take to use up about 15ml x4 of gel ink?

[smitch6]

lol i would suggest ring BMS as they sell those printers and are quite experienced with the ricoh, plus Martin and his team are really helpful

[Matt Quinn]

Don't know if it's appropriate to GEL inks Or Dye-Sub inks (I'm more used to printing photographs) but...

When we change inksets on a printer we have TWO sets of empty/refillable cartridges... One we charge with iso-propyl alcohol... The other with the new ink. We're using Epson machines which don't take all that much flushing. On a machine like yours where the ink reserves are remote it might be more of an issue... We just print out a few purge images 'till the machine runs clear, change to the new ink, same again and generally all is well thereafter...

[Paul]

well... No. Coz how do you know when contamination is gone? Pipes are long in those printer so only to be 100% sure you need to go tru all new subli carts. Or 90% of them but only this clean will cost you about £150 then new set for another £150. I think you would be better off to buy new printer with subli carts and you will get warranty from your subli supplier as well.

[smitch6]

never thought of doing that Matt
brill idea as i have the epson B1100 and have been asked a few times to print out a large poster but because i only have sub ink i've said no as i didn't want to waste loads of ink and stuff swapping but having the iso stuff carts is a brill idea
i presume you can buy empty carts and that iso stuff to fill them?