Blizzard Convection Oven Owners

[webtrekker]

I've never tried more than four at a time Earl, but usually just stick to one or two as I never have any really big orders.

I'd suggest starting at 15 minutes for four mugs, but it really depends on your setup so, as usual with sublimation, you'll probably waste a few mugs until you hit the sweet spot.

[pisquee]

The Bush oven we got from Argos, we could get 24 mugs in - two baking trays full of mugs in green wraps.
We have up after too many wasted mugs - the green wraps we'd bought in were too big for our mugs, so were never tight enough, so we got blurry patches on some mugs, and although found we got better (and quicker) printing turning the oven fan on, this increased the sub ink gas flying around the oven printing all exposed parts of mugs a light brown colour. It got to the stage we were having to completely tape all edges of the transfer paper to the mug to seal any gas in from escaping - this used so much tape, and took so much time, it was more efficient to go back to presses.

I think if the oven wasn't now installed in our kitchen at home, and was sat in the warehouse still, I'd be tempted to give it another go, but the expense of another oven, and buying all the wraps in (we bought 100 wraps direct in from China which we flogged off on Ebay)

The oven is great though - was about £100, has an upper and lower heating element as well as a big fan. I then used a spare heat press controller and temp sensor to have a digital read out of the inside temp, which wouldn't have been too big a task to also wire in to control the owen properly but never got around to it. Definitely worth keeping an eye on Argos and Currys for ovens too (the one we have look strikingly similar to one oven I've seen sold as a sublimation oven - just with the top panel swapped out, and proper controllers added!)

[robhil]

I have only ever done 3 at a time purely for heat circulation purposes but I use 200 Deg. for 18 mins, you can usually see the discoloration in the paper so time to switch off then. if that is OK you could possibly work down in time until you see what works best.
As webtrekker say's trial and error.

[webtrekker]

I don't find times and temps to be too critical.

I was getting a few faded spots cooking for 8 mins 30 secs on solid-colour, full area prints, which I thought might have been caused by not enough pressure in the silicone wraps. However, I just increased the time by 30 secs and all was ok. I have left a single mug in for 12 minutes before and seen no difference to a 9 minute mug.

[Earl Smith]

Thanks . I will try these times later today.
Ive found a cheap twin press on Amazon and Id like some opinions for this press. I usually never buy cheap but as I normally only do 100 mugs a year I have no need for anything more than I have now. But now I have a couple of big orders totaling 900 or so mugs I need something just to get these orders done.
Ill start a new post asking for advice on the cheap press.

[GoonerGary]

Back to convection ovens!

So I'm happy with my work flow with the new Blizzard after a few trials.

Temperature:

I started off with the recommended 190 degrees and arrived at 11 mins for 6 mugs, but didn't like the results, not enough leeway.

So my preferred time and temperature is:

160 degrees (152 degrees on Salter oven thermometer.)


6 mugs - 20 mins

18 mugs - 20 mins


One size fits all, whether it's a design with tiny black text or a full colour print. Nice and sharp with rich black text and no fading at handles.

10oz Xpres 5013 mug
True Pix paper
Inktec Sublinova Smart


Wraps:

I ordered these 'cheapest on ebay' wraps.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/11OZ-3D-Subl ... ctupt=true

and 6 of what I thought were identical wraps from another seller:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/11OZ-3D-Subl ... 2749.l2649

The first lot are very thin about 1mm with a shiny chrome fixing. The batch of 6 has much heavier silicone, around 1.5-2mm, the fixings are dull metal, but too loose for 10oz mugs. These wraps will be designed for the big clumpy Chinese 11oz mugs. I can get by with the thinner silicone, although I do get the odd smudged print. So if anyone knows of a wrap perfect for narrow 10oz mugs, give me a shout.

Tips:

For the fastest wrapping, line your clamp up to the edge of your trimmer if possible. Mark the centre of the wrap with a marker to make a guide..see image. Line up mug handle with red marker. Perfectly centred wrap!

Hold your breath when you open the oven door.

I haven't noticed any discoloured mugs..maybe not enough ink on my designs?

[socialgiraffe]

Back to convection ovens!

So I'm happy with my work flow with the new Blizzard after a few trials.

Temperature:

I started off with the recommended 190 degrees and arrived at 11 mins for 6 mugs, but didn't like the results, not enough leeway.

So my preferred time and temperature is:

160 degrees (152 degrees on Salter oven thermometer.)

6 mugs - 20 mins

18 mugs - 20 mins.

One size fits all, whether it's a design with tiny black text or a full colour print. Nice and sharp with rich black text and no fading at handles.

Dropping the time by one minute for 6 mugs with thin text designs would improve sharpness a little bit.

10oz Xpres 5013 mug
True Pix paper
Inktec Sublinova Smart


Wraps:

I ordered these 'cheapest on ebay' wraps.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/11OZ-3D-Subl ... ctupt=true

and 6 of what I thought were identical wraps from another seller:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/11OZ-3D-Subl ... 2749.l2649

The first lot are very thin about 1mm with a shiny chrome fixing. The batch of 6 has much heavier silicone, around 1.5-2mm, the fixings are dull metal, but too loose for 10oz mugs. These wraps will be designed for the big clumpy Chinese 11oz mugs. I can get by with the thinner silicone, although I do get the odd smudged print. So if anyone knows of a wrap perfect for narrow 10oz mugs, give me a shout.

Tips:

For the fastest wrapping, line your clamp up to the edge of your trimmer if possible. Mark the centre of the wrap with a marker to make a guide..see image. Line up mug handle with red marker. Perfectly centred wrap!

Hold your breath when you open the oven door.

I haven't noticed any discoloured mugs..maybe not enough ink on my designs?

Brilliant post GoonerGary, but I think you will have discolouration on your mugs in due time if you print your designs on that size paper.

It might be ok as you are at a lower temperature but I found that the paper needs to extend beyond the wrap to prevent ink migration.

Time will tell, but I am definitely going to give your time and temps a go.

Would be interested to know what temp your mugs are before they are put in the oven (cold, room temp etc etc)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pisquee]

I'd forgotten about the holding your breath part when opening the over - especially if you have a fan oven! ... also you definitely need heat gloves. In terms of PPE maybe breathing masks too???

[webtrekker]

I wrap mine the full height of the mug and virtually touching the handle.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5603[/ATTACH]

[GoonerGary]

Time will tell, but I am definitely going to give your time and temps a go.

Would be interested to know what temp your mugs are before they are put in the oven (cold, room temp etc etc)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The mugs were room temperature which was 22 degrees before the oven was switch on in this small studio. It reaches about 25 when the oven is on all day.

Yeah, stand to the side of the oven as you open the door and watch the black cloud burst out! Reminds me of the smoke monster in the Lost series. The handles are just as hot as the mugs when using an oven, so my MaxiTherm "for handling hot parts of up to 250C for up to 15 seconds" gloves do struggle!

I liked your mug wrapping method [MENTION=7061]webtrekker[/MENTION] in a previous post, so that's my next upgrade. I use the width of an A4 page normally.