DSF

So,

Many months ago I bought a mug press from fleabay, together with an Epson S21 if 'un-supported' sub ink. I used this to make the odd mug on e-bay and things turned out really well. I was quite chuffed as I had heard all the 'scare' stories about buying unsupported printers and ink and to be totally honest "thought" it was a perfect example of those stories being generated by the company bosses to get us to buy 'their' ink !

How wrong I was!

The guy I bought the ink and printer from was really friendly and he said that the images come out really well when cooked, and as I said - I was happy with the results.

The thing is, 99% of the mugs and stuff I was doing (mostly mugs) was of my own design, so I had nothing to compare them with. After the mug was done I had a look and was chuffed with the result.

Fast forward many months and I still have the old faithful, the difference being we have just opened a shop and it has two sides - my side offering personalised products etc.

Here's where the problem lies. Something that's extremely popular at the moment is photos on jigsaws so where I would normally scan a photo and print I couldn't do this as the coulours were not matching up. One time the image was greeny, the other with a purple haze, and as I well knew the problem was that I didn't have an ICC profile for my set up (for newbies - the profile is specific to the ink and tells the printer how much of each colour to lay down for particular colours).

So, with EACH ITEM (and I would waste a few along the road) I would have to test and adjust the image once pressed. And the thing is without an ICC profile it's such a gamble as what could look right on paper would look a lot different after it's pressed. BECAUSE I am only adjusting the image to print differently with the inks - an ICC profile would adjust the inks differently for the image ............... so with an ICC profile you don't need to adjust images.

I would have to adjust each image and probably waste 2-4 items along the way, something that is only a couple of quid in 'our' money but if those items were sold as complete the difference would be HUGE!

So, after thinking long and hard about it I decided I needed to bite the bullet and purchase anorther printer with supported inks and ICC profile. Martin from BMS was (as always) a great help and reccommended many people who sold what I required .......... in the end (as I normally do) I went with him (BMS).

So, as everyone says - if you want to get things right then it's best to pay the little extra at the start. If you are just wanting to sell a few mugs on fleabay then don't forget that the customer isn't getting what he pays for, which he would with someone using supported inks (I only say this if he buys a mug from you and one from another and yours looks different).

Look, I know we have all heard this before but take it from me - I would have saved 'hundreds' of pounds if I had gone with a supported printer at the very start, and that's taking out the cash it would take to buy it!

I'm sure you'll find your new printer a peice o cake when it's all set up. Even though I have the profiles set up I usually test my images on a faulty or damaged mug or whatever i'm using, I just print out a stamp size pic and give it a whirl before going with the full size image. I often find by doing this I can usually do some minor tweaking to improve the image too. No or VERY little waste.

AJLA - faulty or damaged mugs? You are either using the wrong supplier or the courier company is crap - I ordered x4 72 mugs off transferpress - they arrived with 9 broken mugs - credit due to graham at transferpress, on my next order he gave me a credit for the broken mugs & probably wiped the floor with courier company - any breakages since? NO!!!

AdamB - wise move my friend - always listen to the 'wiseman' who calls himself Martin BMS - I bow down to the technical sublimation god!!

That is why Martin can afford to goto Singapore Grands Prix & we can't!! He good at what he does & deseves the credit & is always right.

Moto of the story: take advice from someone who has probably made the mistakes that we all have sometimes!!

Can I get a Whoop Whoop for BMS!!

Hi Joel, I buy my mugs from BMS, never had a broken or damaged one but I have a Jarin press and a mug oven, the Jarin press is a bit iffy and really is only suitable for smaller images, many moons ago and before replacing the heat wrap/blanket we often had mugs cooked in places only and a fair bit of waste, even though i stood over it and moved the mug slightly from left to right in an attempt to give it a good cooking all over. The wrap is replaced and is much better although we do get the occasional one which does not press properly.

Then along came the mug oven with a free box of mugs to practice on. Just as well because it did take a few attemps to get it perfect!

Ooh and the odd one where i put the text on upside down (come on admit it! i'm not the only one. when you do a run of 250+ you can get a bit slack)

Now from this we have a collection of odd ones which i use for my tests. Having a photo shop as well, I almost always think our customers images can be improved, particulary the very old ones or from cheap digie cameras with the colour casts.