Create Your Own Sublimation Items?

[Stitch Up]

I recall reading somewhere (before this forum), that one can apply the polyester coating to our own products. Lets say you have a ceramic tile you wish to sublimate, spray it with some sort of polyester coating, allow to dry and use the same as the ones we purchase.

Is this a possibility or did I just have some weird dream

The reason I ask is not because I plan to mass produce dyesub products but there are occasions when you might just want to create one of each for your display or the odd one for a customer.

The raw cost of imprintables is the greatest proportion of the final selling price and when you add carriage & VAT it often leaves you trying to justify the retail price of what you produce.

Lets take an MDF photo plaque measuring 15cms x 10cms for example. Xpres sell these for £2.50 + VAT = £2.94 add the carriage and your looking at over £3 before you do anything with it.

Yesterday, Angie produce a few of these photo plaques, I didn't even know we had any in stock! I must say, they looked rather impressive. I asked Angie how much the plaque cost and she said about £1.50! So I was thinking, these look good and could be marketed at a reasonable cost - say £4 to £5 each - a nice little profit especially if you shift a few.

But of course Angie was mistaken! To use, they'd cost a little over £3 each. Add to that the production cost, inks, paper, time, heat etc etc and for me, it took my initial excitement away.

What do you guys think?

[John G]

Especially when xpres's carriage charge is £6 per bloody box or £4 for every box of mugs.

[purpledragon]

hi
there is a coating you can buy which will allow you to sublimate. its in spray form but i believe its quite tricky stuff to use. theres long words in there like catalyst so i lost interest at that point lol
Brett

[John G]

I've heard of the above too but think after its had the catalyst added it needs to be placed in an oven for a while to dry. I don't think the wife would be too happy if I used our oven at home.

[Stitch Up]

I've heard of the above too but think after its had the catalyst added it needs to be placed in an oven for a while to dry. I don't think the wife would be too happy if I used our oven at home.

Don't tell her or tell her you're making dinner and then rush down the take-a-way.

Seriously, the halogen ovens from JML are quite cheap - we have 2 @ £40 something each.

[R.Prints]

I tried to do some self coating myself a while back, only on glasses and plates. Got the mix (3 Part) from Nikki at Subli Supplies, this link should take you to product page ( http://www.sublisupplies.com/accessories/subli-coat-sublimation-coating-solution-sn0372/prod_325.html ) The mix as I said is a three part mix, to do a small quantity was like being back at school doing a science exam, the parts have a shelf life, and once mixed has to be used quickly before it cures. my experience was that it was more trouble and time consuming than it was worth, so chucked the stuff away. Hope you have better luck than I had if you decide to try it.
Cheers
Ray

[jennywren]

I coat candles to print on them, it is long, hard and messy but when done it looks good, but geting the mixture even is hard. Their mixture is all mixed and you just have to coat it on ( the hard part). I have thought about trying it on mugs to see if it would work but as usual I run out of time and then forget that I had the idea :

[John G]

Hi Jennywren, Where do you get your mixture from as i'd be interested in trying this out - also do you have to cure it in an oven.

Cheers John

[gorgall]

I've used an all in one coating from Supergoose ink, only tried it on wood and plastic, fiddly to get a smooth coating, but end result on wood looked good.

Gordon

[jennywren]

The coating was wait for it :pre coat for candles: and I got it from a company in china called Unique Thats all I know expect it does say on the keep away from children and DO NOT EAT if you type in their name they come up on the web.