DSF

Well, I already asked the difference between 10oz and 11oz and had some good info from BMS regarding cheap mugs. At the price they were on ebay for I decided to take a chance and buy a couple of boxes from Lovecut. 72 mugs (2 boxes) were delivered the next day for only £59.99 inclusive of delivery (0.83p each).

The mugs arrived and were checked, none were smashed/damaged but the finish isn't up to the ones from xpres. Some of them I would call seconds as there are little blemishes in the glaze - this doesn't effect the print though, and when printed the holes or blemishes aren't as noticible. The boxes were stamped "made in china".

I've made a few text prints and found that they are fairly straight - print colouring is vivid/fine and samples have been washed by hand, and in dishwasher, a few times without any fading/discolouring or chipping.

The one thing I did notice was when dipping in cool water, after printing, they pinged a bit - more of a noise than the xpres ones do. For 83p each i'd say they aren't bad mugs but if you have customers who want perfection everytime i'd stay with BMS / Xpres and other recommended suppliers.

Cheers John

John G wrote:The one thing I did notice was when dipping in cool water, after printing, they pinged a bit - more of a noise than the xpres ones do.

After the demise of TAMS, I stopped dunking mugs because they pretty much all pinged - regardless of where I got them from. These days I fan cool instead. I have a small two-speed desk fan that I perch at the end of the "cooling area" (aka "table" ). Does the job without pinging.

oh! thats a good idea - I thought they had to be dunked or cooled fast to stop the sublimation process.

Cheers John

I think it depends how hot you press your mugs. If you're pressing at a very high temperature and your mug is quite weighty, then the whole thing becomes a heat sink which takes time to cool down and that's when there's the danger of ink migrating as sublimation continues.

I've found that the fan works okay for me, though. I can cool the mugs quicker by turning it up to the faster speed setting, but that's hardly ever necessary (particularly in these cold months!).

Cheers JSR, might try that on Monday.

John

I have stopped dunking too because of the pinging, just pop them on the side to cool naturally. Haven't had any problems with the finished product because of this. Am using BMS mugs at the moment.

Just to let you know we have always used Xpres mugs, and have always cooled them in warm water, and they have never 'pinged'... We used cool water once and one cracked!

Personally I am happier to pay around 95p per mug to make sure I get the best possible product. I wouldn't use anything that doesn't have RN/Duraglaze coating as I've tested these over a very long period.

In the scale of things the difference in price between cheap uncoated and decent dishwasher proof mugs shouldn't be a major problem. Just make sure you're charging your customer enought for them. I see so many mugs being sold for peanuts, at the end of the day this is a personalised one off (sometimes) hand finished item.

JNMann wrote:Personally I am happier to pay around 95p per mug to make sure I get the best possible product. I wouldn't use anything that doesn't have RN/Duraglaze coating as I've tested these over a very long period.

In the scale of things the difference in price between cheap uncoated and decent dishwasher proof mugs shouldn't be a major problem. Just make sure you're charging your customer enought for them. I see so many mugs being sold for peanuts, at the end of the day this is a personalised one off (sometimes) hand finished item.

I tend to agree with you on this. In the grand scheme of things 10p on a mug isn't going to lose a sale and you can sell the mug with a clear conscience knowing that the customer has a superior product.Out here we are subject to 67% import duty on everything including the price of shipping so we just adjust the sale price accordingly. It means we sell a mug for about £12.27 depending on the exchange rate. Looking at some US on line sites the average price is $15 so not too bad for an individual hand produced product.
HAPPY NEW YEAR all.

There are some really stupid prices for mugs on e-bay, I've seen them at 99p but then they add postage at a fiver which is a real con