Mug Press and Issues

[SDT]

I recently purchased a dye sub mug kit and I have had nothing but issues. The most recent is consistency issues from the heat press and I am guessing it is due to the single thumb screw adjustment design.

I pressed 24 white mugs last week without an issue, I changed no settings and now this week I keep getting mugs with faded bottoms and vertical banding. I checked the prints from the printer and they show no vertical bandiing. I believe this is a pressure thing as I have also had problems on black mugs. Changing time and temp has not seem to made any difference. I am currently set for 370F for 250 Seconds. I am thinking about getting a different press as this one with its center adjustment will make one side of the sleeve narrower and the other side wider so I am guessing this difference is what is leading to the fadeout at the bottom as the press is not creating a uniform pressure against the mug.

This is my current press
https://www.coastalbusiness.com/multi-f ... ckage.html


This is the one I am thinking about getting as it has 4 screw point adjustments. The company that makes this press says 385F for 190 seconds.
https://www.heatpressnation.com/hpn-digital-mug-cup-heat-press-transfer-machine.html


Thoughts? Am I on the right track ?

[Mrteajunkie]

Are you in the uk?
I have a digital press from mdp supplies and it’s been fantastic.
I also use their mugs now as I was having issues with mugs being faulty and having small indentations on both the outside and inside.

now every mug I do is perfect. (shouldn’t jinx it should I)

https://www.mdpsupplies.co.uk/mug-presses-touch.aspx

[GermanDyeSub]

Sounds like a defect from what you describe, and it's not pleasant. You need and deserve consistency. They have been active for 30 years and if they're reputable they should get it sorted for you. Report the issue to them. I assume that you are based in the US, am I right?

[Daninho]

Are you in the uk?
I have a digital press from mdp supplies and it’s been fantastic.
I also use their mugs now as I was having issues with mugs being faulty and having small indentations on both the outside and inside.

now every mug I do is perfect. (shouldn’t jinx it should I)

https://www.mdpsupplies.co.uk/mug-presses-touch.aspx

The more i read about mug presses i am starting to believe that most of the china presses are all nearly the same. They just change the position of the power unit, display, color, lever etc.. and it seems the prices are decided by the dice.
I also start to believe that the mug itself is much more important for good results. I am searching my first heat press as well and i would think that chinese press which is sold under the genie3 label in the UK is pretty good and it looks like all others to me but print equipment, the makers of sublisplash sell them and have obviously good results with them.

To that press you recommended, i am afraid you paid a bit to much for it. Dosnt the one in this link look the same? https://www.ebay.de/itm/11oz-Digital-Di ... 8bd6fc567d

[Mrteajunkie]

I didn’t pay that for it
I bought it as an ex display it’s a cracking press too.

i have had two other Chinese makes and wouldn’t ever recommend those to anyone.

[SDT]

Sounds like a defect from what you describe, and it's not pleasant. You need and deserve consistency. They have been active for 30 years and if they're reputable they should get it sorted for you. Report the issue to them. I assume that you are based in the US, am I right?

i have been in constant contact with one of their reps the list of issues is numerous. I have asked 2 times if the diamond shape I see in the cuff (about one inch in from the the power connector goes to the cuff on the right hand side is a temperature sensor and she replies with “the heating element is throughout the cuff” or another response about the heating element. I’m not asking about that I’m asking where the temperature sensor is because some sensor someplace I'm the cuff has to be reading the temp of the mug to know if it has hit the set point of the temp or not.

do you happen to know is this the temp sensor ?[ATTACH=CONFIG]6048[/ATTACH]

[SDT]

Ive also had issues with

I sent 40 prints to the SG4000 and the yellow channel quit working in the middle of the job leading to the remaining prints coming our purple hued (ruined 12 mugs as I thought it was a press or mug issue) now they tell me that they only send 20 at a time then wait a few minutes but dont tell me how many is a few...

I have had constant Sg400 driver crashes since version 8 of their driver was introduced.

the sawgrass driver incorrectly sets the print area smaller then what the size of the actuall image is sp instead of 9.125 x 3.5 it is 9.11 x 3.49.

printing from photoshop gives a .125 margin all the way around. Printing direct from their print manager via a saved file (this is the way it has to be done on a mac) it prints .4375 margin to the left and right and a .1875 margin across the top and bottom making it so that you have exactly 1mm this of tolerance total to get a mug wrap exactly on the white print area of a black mug or else you will end up with white lines.

their print manager shows the wrong dimensions 3.5 x 9.139 if you select preserve layout from designer.

if you select VPM performs layout it tells you one or more jobs do not fit current page layout settings.. i reduced the size multiple times and same result.


the sawgrass sg400 software has serious issues I find it hard to believe no one has reported these issues

I’ve had my equipment 3 - 4 weeks, wasted 2.5 cases of mugs and had all these problems. This does not seem normal to me.

[SDT]

Let me also ask this do you find it matters which way you load the mug into the press? For example do you load the top of the mug facing towards the where the cables come into the cuff (right on my machine) or do you load the bottom that way ? Or does it not matter ?

[Daninho]

Let me also ask this do you find it matters which way you load the mug into the press? For example do you load the top of the mug facing towards the where the cables come into the cuff (right on my machine) or do you load the bottom that way ? Or does it not matter ?

I can only tell you the Infos i have for the Genie3 press and in that press you should place the botton of the mug always to the right. So maybe you can check how the genie3 is constructed and compare it with your press. I checked it for you real quick and the genie 3 press has the cable connected to the heating element on the right side, so guess that is the position of the sensor as well. Maybe other presses have the cable attached to the left side of the heating element, who knows. This means the mug press gets the temperature from the mug bottom instead of the top which makes sense

Now i wonder where my press has the connector, it will arrive on thursday. The thing is that my press has a supporting element for the mug bottom on the right side, so i hope the designers of this press thought about sensor problem as well :biggrin: