Just wanted to say thanks....

[FBW]

Oh Im so chuffed

All the kit arrived today...was a bit worried when the gubbins box (the one with all the starter kit mugs, inks, paper etc) was opened (courtesy of Yodel) but everything was there.
Installed everything in about an hour. Registering with Sawgrass a tiny bit more involved than I'd have wanted but it was OK.

and then.....printed first mug. Heavy black letters - little bit brown but nice and sharp

reduced baking time and tried it with a couple of images (I dabble in photography) and ....am blown away

I'll be printing these for a few days and will post images of my early efforts and give an in depth **noobie** review later tonight

36 mugs...34 left. I'm gonna need more mugs.

[FBW]

This is a noob review - I've gleaned a wealth of info off here so this is just me giving an opinion of somebody completely new to dye sub printing. Make of it what you will.

Ok, as above, Im very pleased with how the first 6 turned out.
First black text one I tried was overbaked so reduced temperature by 20 degrees and next one was perfect.

The mug press machine is very sturdy. I was expecting something far more flimsy. Ive not seen ANY other models/brands so I cant judge or compare them.
The manual does not suggest any Chinese translation. (aha...addendum...just found the warranty card at back of manual has a chinese address) It is very easy to follow.

The instructions told me to set idle temp at 230ºF and high temp at 330ºF and run for 40 seconds.
So for my first mug I thought I'd better follow that. I just put a design in with some plain thick black letters (impact font) to see how it would cope. It was brown.
So then I thought I'd set the high temp down to 310ºF and tried it with an image - the one with the red scarf. I was very pleased how that turned out

Tried about 6 different designs and have yet to find one that isn't good enough to sell.

Only errors I made was not being careful enough in making sure the design is dead level at bottom of cup.

The Ricoh printer is fab. Very quick to print a page.

Im really pleased so far with the purchase from The Magic Touch. Paul Burton is the guy who sold it me..I did ask him by email a few questions comparing it to the Adkins and whilst his replies weren't detailed he did say if he was spending his money today this is the model he'd buy. He promised delivery today (Monday) if I placed the order on Friday. Yodel man was ringing my bell by 1pm

Im chuffed...so thanks for all the snippets of info ive gleaned from here.

My next purchase will be a swing away press as I want some coasters to go with these.

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[Bob @ Prestige]

Looking good Doug, you seem to have hit the ground running, I too am looking at mugs but getting to grips with garments and heat presses at the moment.

Have to say from the pictures posted they do look very good, well done.

Can you advise what you got for your £499.

Cheers

Bob

[socialgiraffe]

Looks interesting but it's no Adkins Let us know how you get on with it.

Perhaps that is a good thing

I am a huge fan of Adkins flat presses but their mug presses have never impressed me. They are too restrictive on image area etc.

I did see the Magic Touch mug press when I was last there, Nathan talked it up with some impressive numbers and I know him well enough to know he is not the sort to feed me lines so I think it could be a little gem. The really impressive thing about this particular press is that it is backed by a reputable supplier who know the business and the heat blankets are much much cheaper than others (I think about the £30.00 mark).

There are some more interesting developments for this heat press that I am not sure I can talk about so will leave it for now. Suffice to say I think if you are serious about ceramics you may well end up buying one because you need to

[FBW]

Bob the package I got is here
http://www.themagictouch.co.uk/newslett ... ckage.html

[Bob @ Prestige]

Cheers Doug, thanks for the link.

I looked at a similar package from I-SUB Supplies, they want £595 but give a 2 year guarantee on the printer and press.

I know you can buy the printer on its own for around £100 or so and a set of inks at £175 and then your mug press for whatever your willing to pay but makes sense to get it as you did from one supplier then you've got some sort of support with your goods

What guarantee/warranty did they give you? Its down to the supplier to give the guarantee with the printer as Ricoh won't honour any guarantee because your now using 3rd party sublimation inks.

I think I read in a previous post that Sawgrass, the ink manufacturers give some form of guarantee.

Thanks again and look forward to seeing a few more of your mugs.

All the best

Bob

[FBW]

Youre welcome. Oh they came with SubliJet R inks and has Sawgrass logo on the box. The mug press on its own is £199. Not sure about warranty. I never bother about things like that - if anything goes wrong within a reasonable time I just make contact and ask them to replace/fix. That system hasn't failed me yet. Not much help to those that do hold value on it, I know.

Oh...doh...yeah sawgrass ink and not Ricoh ink. Gotcha.

[AlanD]

I see you are printing virually the full height of the mug, out of interest what mugs are you using because I struggle big time doing this sort of coverage with my press and mugs (and I've tried a couple of brands) I always seem to get fading at the base edge

[FBW]

AlanD they came as part of package linked above. Orca Durham is on the box. I did follow advice given elsewhere on here on first few mugs to pre heat the bottoms by placing them on a grill plate but to be honest....am not sure it needed it with this model. Will do some more tests on Boxing Day without pre-heating. MagicTouch didn't answer my question, pre-order, whether the elements were more evenly spread on this and I didn't push for an answer. I guess the test on Boxing Day will inform us better. I'll do a full height one and post the result here.

Happy Xmas all!

[AlanD]

AlanD they came as part of package linked above. Orca Durham is on the box. I did follow advice given elsewhere on here on first few mugs to pre heat the bottoms by placing them on a grill plate but to be honest....am not sure it needed it with this model. Will do some more tests on Boxing Day without pre-heating. MagicTouch didn't answer my question, pre-order, whether the elements were more evenly spread on this and I didn't push for an answer. I guess the test on Boxing Day will inform us better. I'll do a full height one and post the result here.

Happy Xmas all!

Please tell us your results. Does that press have a heat up temperature before cooking or is it like the Adkins where you just set the temp and time and off you go