DSF

RogerC;89519 wrote:You might be a proud MOG but I'm officially 'The MOG'. My daughter (40+ years) gave me a Christmas present which gave her some cause for concern as to how it would be received.......
.....An 'Official' MOG On Board car sticker. Needless to say it is displayed with pride........

ahhh to the printing press batman

There are a lot of suckers around that get conned into the sublimation thing. I know. I am one.
A couple of years ago I was convinced to buy a mug press at a ridiculously affordable price. Think under 50 quid UK. It was one of the old style heavy duty presses and will probably outlast the cheap Chinese one I got to supplement it. He also tossed in some bottles of ink that he said were for Canon printers and the advice that I could get more from a specialty photographic store he dealt with. This turned out to be rubbish as the store claimed no knowledge of him.

The thing is, the bloke who had supposedly been making a living out of this thing, explained to me I needed a computer, and a Canon printer for best results. Oh, i also needed 'coated' inkjet paper and mugs. I was told to tape the printed image to the mug and heat the press to about 200C with a spare mug in it, then take out the spare mug and put the mug with the print on it, in with the timer set for 3 and a half minutes.

That was it!

The result, on a ceramic mug bought from a 'dollar store' was not exactly spectacular.

A bit of googling and I discovered Sublimation is best done on Piezo head printers, so I filled one of my brother printers with the so called 'Canon' ink. I also bought a carton of cheap mugs from ebay. from that I at least got some mugs with passable prints on them. Not good, but you could see they were printed.

Then I found this forum.

i am sure my story is not uncommon. I had no intention of ever getting into sublimation. It just seemed like a good idea at the time for someone with a heap of computer equipment left over from my old business.

my story is very similar to a poster a few pages ago , i was printing clothes and doing embroidery for a large company called kukri sports which got me to a trade show where i saw this at the side whilst i was supposed to be doing looking at the dtg machines .i had been on this site for advice on embroidery and probley kept coming on reading for 12 months before i got round to buying the sub kits , bought some crap of ebay also which soon ended up in the bin before taking teh ricoh route and only using carts i know its dearer but it works and i dont spend time messing about with it , the next big advice i got on here was about paper quality and the profiles which i got paul to make , hard thing to get my head around was the photoshop side of things but getting alot better on that now and after some time start geting regular work , although i am noticing a drop in sales at the moment , is anyone else , ive put it to world cup and the weather and people out on holidays .

guarddog14;89549 wrote:, although i am noticing a drop in sales at the moment , is anyone else , ive put it to world cup and the weather and people out on holidays .

yeah pretty much the same here its a traditional time of year for sales to dip though if i were you id take your best seller and check what others are selling it for on ebay we just done this for one of our best sellers and found some one has under cut us quite considerabley , not a lot we can do i suppose damn these back room printer boys !

i have looked at some stuff for example personalised phone cases , my competitors are doing them at £2.99 , i just cant see the point in it to be fair lol

This is not a dig at anyone but, I've just spent the best part of this evening reading this thread from start to finish... I thought the idea of any forum was for people to ask questions and get helpful advice from those willing enough to give it, along with being a social area for like-minded people to exchange ideas and banter? If you view this post from my perspective, that of the new and inexperienced, it doesn't make me feel like asking anything. We all started somewhere.

Nigel.

Gygafo;89570 wrote:This is not a dig at anyone but, I've just spent the best part of this evening reading this thread from start to finish... I thought the idea of any forum was for people to ask questions and get helpful advice from those willing enough to give it, along with being a social area for like-minded people to exchange ideas and banter? If you view this post from my perspective, that of the new and inexperienced, it doesn't make me feel like asking anything. We all started somewhere.

Nigel.

You said it in your post "I've just spent the best part of this evening reading this thread from start to finish..." People don't do this. They just join up and ask a question that has been asked hundreds of times before and they never post again. No one is saying they are not willing to help but please have a look around first as the answer may already be here somewhere.
I know that several people often offer the advice of " get a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and read" this is the best advice I have seen. When I joined back in November I spent most evenings looking in each section going back maybe up to 3 pages.
Iain

Gygafo;89570 wrote:This is not a dig at anyone but, I've just spent the best part of this evening reading this thread from start to finish... I thought the idea of any forum was for people to ask questions and get helpful advice from those willing enough to give it, along with being a social area for like-minded people to exchange ideas and banter? If you view this post from my perspective, that of the new and inexperienced, it doesn't make me feel like asking anything. We all started somewhere.

Nigel.

Think youre missing the point are you telling me that one day you thought i know ill print mugs ill just nip on a forum and ask how to do it ? Or would you google how to print mugs hit a brick wall then seek out advice? By research and doing you learn far more than getting someone else to do the work for you.im not a premium member here i was once but one of the main reasons im not is i dont see why i should pay a tenner to give free advice, theres people who charge quite a lot to impart the knowladge they have learnt. When i started i made so many mistakes and came up against a ton of problems . Its taken me time and money to get it right , ive bought the wrong equiptment and paid the price its still a learning curve why should i answer the most basic questions when the answer is there at the end of a google search. Dont get me wrong im only talking about the most basic questions like why do i need icc profile. If you nedd to know somthing and you put a search in and still cant find the answer then the obvious next step is to ask someone but if someone is too lazy to search out the answer first i have no sympathy for them . Its not a case of not willing to help its more a case of try helping your self first if you get no where then ask me

This is not a dig at anyone but, I've just spent the best part of this evening reading this thread from start to finish...

One of the problems with forums, and this is not a dig at anyone either - because almost ALL of us do it - is the ambiguity of the titles of posts.

It makes searching for information or guidance difficult until one realises the search function can dig through the bodies of posts. I mean a pot with the title "Old Grumpy". Really? I did not expect to find a discussion about researching the process before we get into something. I expected perhaps a remembrance post about a member had passed away recently.

That, however ties in wonderfully with the social aspect of forums, or what, in pre World Wide Web days, we called Bulletin Boards. A place to meet, greet and share.

Life would be much simpler if every post was titled something like 'Blacks coming out a muddy brown on ceramic mugs', rather than the more common 'Problem printing on mugs' type of post title.

But would it be as much fun? I wonder.

Dyesubforum has taken me from experiments with as few mugs, to producing a consistent range of products, all thanks to feedback from members. What a fantastic place.

rossdv8;89575 wrote:Life would be much simpler if every post was titled something like 'Blacks coming out a muddy brown on ceramic mugs', rather than the more common 'Problem printing on mugs' type of post title.

But would it be as much fun? I wonder.

.

Its certainly a valid point and to be fair most questions i see do have the problem in the title ie "blacks comming out brown" unfortunatly you havent factored in the dragon element this is quite clear and heavily documented through the annuls of history and this goes something like
"Purple Dragon (brett) is a miserable grumpy old git and will from time to time (normally on a monday morning) post inain ramblings and have a general grip[e at life the universe and everything).unfortunatly it seems this condition is infectious and other members will insist on replying and some times some even dare to disagree which is ridiculous because as my wife often declares "i am never wrong" ....no honestly she says almost on a daily basis " for christs sake brett you're never wrong are you "