MUG time!! and HELLO!

[hooperjaws]

Progress update: My dye (from various places) has finally arrived, I bought a couple of syringes from Boots the chemist for 50p each, and had a couple around the house already. Only one syringe actually fitted into my refillable cartridges, so pen-knife and 20mins later the ends of the other three syringes fitted just about well enough into the cartridges so I could get some ink in (using suck-push-suck-push) without soaking my house in cyan and magenta. I installed the cartridges, fired up the printer for the first time in a couple of years, and expected very blocked nozzles. However, one clean via the software, and bizzarely the test print came out perfect. Go figure! Eleven test-prints later of that "test card" that is on this forum, and fiddling with the epson basic color-controls and I am starting to get something that looks a bit more like a proper photo, and less "tinge with magenta" as I first started with. No, I don't own profiling equipment before you ask, and there exists no manufaturer profile for the Epson CX3650. I am probably the only person in the world trying to push subli dyes through and Epson cx3650 printer! I have jml-style oven, ink, mugs, tape, a silicon baking mat and bulldog clips. The only thing that the postie hasnt brought me is transfer paper. However I read on this forum that one chap uses normal glossy photo paper, and itching to have a bash I break out some old (cheapie) gloss fuji photo paper that I think tesco was doing cheap last year. Besides, one of the mugs off ebay was chipped and needed binning - perfect for my first attempt.
15minutes later my printer finally finishes it's print, a little after that I have the mug wrapped up, and 180 seconds later my first attempt comes out of the oven. Very miffed a minute or two later on this forum I realise that 180 seconds is mug press time, and not mug oven time. I salvage a bit of my print-out, tape it to back on the mug, and 15mins later at 230 degrees I am shocked to see some lovely glossy print on a mug.
Although not perfect by any means, I am quite impressed at the possibilities. Total spend to date: £161.14
Picture:[ATTACH=CONFIG]309[/ATTACH]

[John G]

Well done and you have proved me wrong - never thought you'd get any type of useable results. Not bad at all for £161.14

Cheers John

[Kaz]

As John says, well done.

But crikey, 15 minutes to print out

[Paul]

congratulation on your first mug mate! I think i could bit you up about £20 by useing my oven lol. Now how much you need to sell your mug for to make a profit? Also grey looks bit odd but other then that look ok.

[hooperjaws]

I think a few simple designs sold might help get back some of the cash. I'm not sure how to make designs yet, but I am hoping to find my way around PhotoShop and Adobe illustrator, as we have those, old versions but I'm sure they are up to the job. As for the remaining 35 mugs I suppose I could sell 32 of them for a fiver and is break even, lol. Next thing I'm going to look at is trying to get they grey looking less brown. I've of a brown-scale going on on that test card instead of a grey-scale! I've a bit more tweaking to do but I don't think the problem will be fully solved without expensive profiling gear. So for now I think the setup I have will only be really suitable for illustration-designs and not photos.

[JSR]

Also grey looks bit odd but other then that look ok.

More than just the grey. Compare it to your original test pattern. The greys are red, the green's under-saturated, the printed red isn't red on the original, and the less said about the blues the better. If I was printing that for a customer, I certainly wouldn't want to send it to them like that.

Still, if it's something you're doing for yourself, it's adequate I guess. If you doing it professionally then it proves the value of a colour-correction profile.

[Paul]

you dont need expensive profiling devices to correct that colours. There is plenty web sites that will make profile for you from about £15. All you need to do is just press their colour chart on piece of fabric (polyester) and send it to them for colour reading




JSR. I just looked now and you right (as always) mire colours are wrong.

[hooperjaws]

Paul, can I ask you what mugs you use? Ive seen the other thread where you have posted your own pics of the "test pattern", and I notice that the mugs you use look nice and white, and have smooth clean edges. The ones I bought off ebay are naff. The above pic I posted was one of the better mugs (although I didnt realise it at the time), and even though the colors are 'off' the mug my looked well-printed for the most part, nice smooth and glossy. However a lot of the others in this box of 36 are unfortunately 'orange peel' textured, if you get me, or have blobs of glaze on the rim, or other defects. Very few are good enough.

[Paul]

you should complain then and get another box as a replacment.
I always use coralgraph mugs and I already used few boxes. had few with "pinholes" but most of them are great and very white. also I use windsor mugs but they are from xpres.

[smitch6]

not sure where abouts in nrf you are but listawood is in fakenham area i think and you could collect off them to save on postage

i us their orca mugs and so far i've found them to be a good quality