WHICH HEAT PRESS

[Karen.]

I would b e very warey myself. We had a bad experience with a cheap mug press,. It also had the CE mark, yet caught fire - not just smouldering, but totaly up in flames. The seller didn't want to know.

[valentine rhodes]

valentine rhodes.
what are your veiws on the Magic Touch htp 616 ts,heat press. It does toner and sublimation, is this an advantage or not. I see that most mugs are done in sublimation, where would toner fit in. There does not seem to be anybody doing plates or saucers. Why not.

[jennywren]

I trade 6 days a week and am I am asked for these 4 times a year. we did have a chap that trader in only sublimation in plates but did't last as there was very little requirement for those items, not many people put plates on a wall, so maybe thats why.

[purpledragon]

Buy cheap buy twice as they say and thats exactly what we did to begin with . Bought a 5 in 1 jobby it blew up.... no really i mean it blew up with a huge bang. I did get a replacement the press worked well for vynil but terrable on subli and the mug press was so hit and miss it wasnt worth the lost mugs . then the bearings in the swing of the press crushed. id say steer well clear
Brett

[Karen.]

I wouldn't mind betting you got that from the same place as I got my mug press that caught fire, as I have heard of others that have had the same problem with this sellers items.

[JSR]

There does not seem to be anybody doing plates or saucers. Why not.

I offer plates but I have very few customers.

The main problem with plates is availability. Very few suppliers sell them in the UK and when you ask for them, they say "there's no call for them". No, there's no call for them because suppliers don't sell them! It's catch-22.

Added to that you need a good plate press (not like mine, then) because the plates we get in the UK are not particularly flat - but the plate press heat platen is flat - so you tend to end up with inconsistent heating. They're also not very high quality and you end up putting many aside because of poor coating or imperfections in the gold colour edges, meaning that you can't sell them at an attractive price.

A cheap press, like mine, won't heat to anywhere near the edge of the platen so you end up putting a tiny image (well under 4") in the middle of the plate and it looks silly. The only time a plate looks even remotely good is if you do a cut-out image. However an expensive press would just take too long to pay for given the lack of availability of good quality plates.

So the reason very few people do plates is because there's no supplier willing to support us with (i) good presses at a reasonable price and (ii) a decent range of quality plates. If you're in the US, there are many different types of plates you can use - not just the not-very-desirable chunky ceramic plate offered in the UK but bright white porcelain/china plates and plates with pre-printed outer edge.

But, in the UK, they don't supply, we don't sell, they say there's no call for them, we can't get any call for them because they don't supply them. Catch-22.

[purpledragon]

It was joys karen , basically cheap Chinese imports its so difficult at the moment because i know a fair few people who have bought Chinese and had no problems the problem is how can you tell the good from the bad btw i sent you a pm today re bits n bobs did you get it ive sent a couple of pms today whch i dont think have got there
brett

[Karen.]

Ah yes, I have never used them personally, although been tempted as they are very close to me. I have ha=eard not so good on them though.

I am just replying to PMs now

[Stitch Up]

valentine rhodes.
what are your veiws on the Magic Touch htp 616 ts,heat press. It does toner and sublimation, is this an advantage or not. I see that most mugs are done in sublimation, where would toner fit in. There does not seem to be anybody doing plates or saucers. Why not.

We have the HTP 616 from TMT. It's a great machine and excellent if you're into laser sublimation. You can produce a mug a lot cheaper than using DyeSub. The other great advantage of this machine is that the 2 heads are independent of each other - in other words, you can start one mug 'cooking' prepare the next and start that when you're ready. However, I don't think you can use it for DyeSub - perhaps I'll try it out.

John