DSF

I am literally at my whits end with the mug press. I've had so many problems and invested so much money into this and nothing I do seems to be right. Yesterday I pressed a more or less perfect mug and I was so happy. I noticed there seemed to be a bit of texture on the mug from the press (which has since washed off) but as I didn't realise it was a temporary issue, I changed the temp and pressure. Todays mugs are ok but they are washed out looking. These are printed on the same piece of paper with the same inks and they look very different to me (trupix paper on an epson WF with ink tec inks). I have a feeling that people would still buy either of them but because I know the colours can look better, I am not happy. I have now changed the settings on the mug press so many times but can't get back to the original look of the mug on the right - I am pressing at 310 for 120 seconds as advised by the manual of the press but have tried 5 seconds longer and up to 320. If I reduce the pressure, they look worse than the one on the left. Can anyone help at all? I've also noticed that for my full colour mugs i.e. the background of the mug is a solid colour not stars or single images, its really faded where the heat tape has been. I am on the verge of reselling all my stuff because its literally been weeks of messing around with this thing now and its cost me basically about £500 to press one perfect mug.
Thanks

Are you putting the mug into the press from cold, and letting it heat up as well as the 120 seconds? Assuming that your press is in fahrenheit based on you saying 320 degrees, I'd try 356 degrees for 180 secs, but this is from the time the mug goes in, not while the press is heating up.

What we used to do with our chinese press, was put a dummy mug in, heat all the way to 356 (180 celcius, which is what most companies recommend starting with), and as soon as the timer starts counting down, swap the mug for the one you want to print.

So to clarify, I'd try 356 (180 celcius) for 180 seconds, but use a dummy mug to get the press up to 356 first.

What press and mugs are you using? I would never go above 200 degrees C. Out of my four Chinese presses the lowest temperature is 187 C, good firm pressure when press is hot.

Hi, yes the temp is in F so I'm not sure what that would be in C and I let the mug heat up as well (I put in the mug I want to print though, not a dummy so would that make a big difference? I haven't had any burning yet, just this fading along the bottom). The rest I've done have come out ok since though some have light areas of fading generally along the bottom. I tried switching the mug around in the press half way through (and adding on an extra bit of time in the press to make up for the switch around) and that seemed to help so I assume its either a pressure thing or the temp of the press isn't consistent? Its annoying to have vibrant colours on the top of the mug and then a slightly mottled/faded effect on the bottoms. Its a pixmax mug press and I'm using BMS mugs. Thanks!