Mug Press Best Practices

[gorgall2]

Not if you use hot water.

[twinsgran]

It's very interesting reading all these replies..... it appears that the answer to the question is....whatever works for you!

[Justin]

Very much so

[GoonerGary]

Not if you use hot water.

If your press is at 185 deg C, your water is say 60 or 100 degrees at most, it's still a fair drop, but I don't see the benefit. It doesn't take that long for mugs to cool, but whatever works for you as they say.

[bms]

Trupix paper with a sheet of plain paper. Remove transfer immediately after pressing and allow to cool naturally on a kitchen worktop. Plunging them into water is a drastic temperature change and you might hear a little ping as it cracks.

Some mugs might do this, but the 'plunge' is a little dramatic I would slowly let the water go over the mug and have the water tepid. The main reason for doing this is to prevent bleeding of the image - a very hot mug left to cool naturally may still be so hot that the inks can still move in the mug. A fine line of yellow to blue for instance could result in a green blur right where they touch. Cooling the mug immediately after pressing will eliminate this.

However, such a topic has been discussed many times before and there are lots of variations - fans, window sills, water (hot, tepid, cool), naturally in cold winter weather on a granite surface etc etc!

[mrs maggot]

at the moment my preferred method - open back door and roll it in snow

[icanattitude]

I actually use a small convection oven for my mugs. I wrap plain copy paper over the transfer before putting on the wrap. When it's done, I unwrap, remove the paper and place the hot cup on a marble kitchen countertop. It pulls the heat out very quickly and I've never had a problem with bleed. My biggest problem is having my know-it-all husband change the temperature setting on the oven when I'm not looking!