Is there a mug press especially against fading ?

[Daninho]

Can you recommend a mug press which can deal with the fading problem better than others for full top to bottom prints? Or are they all the same in that regard? I have Duraglaze 11oz mugs ordered from print equipment and i am currently looking for a mug press and after i saw a video of mugs with full top tp bottom prints i have to say it looks pretty good (depending on the design). I read that you should pre heat the bottom of the mugs but can you do real full to bottom prints with that method or is a 80 Euro Amazon oven the better solution like this one ?

https://www.amazon.de/Heissluftgrill-He ... 63&sr=8-16

Another thing i noticed is the inner heating tubes in the heat element of a mug presses does not reach from top to bottom on one side, here is a picture of what i mean. Does this have anyhting to do with the fading problem?
https://www.heatpress.cn/upfile/images/ ... 055883.png

[webtrekker]

It's not simply down to the mug press. The standard of the mugs being pressed is also critical for a full height print.

Although some in here have no problems achieving this, the only method that's ever worked reliably for me was a halogen oven.

[Mrteajunkie]

I do full prints fine in my press.
And the halogen oven you have linked is the most expensive one any reason for that?

The first question you need to look at.
How many mugs are you going to be making?
Is it worth spending out a fortune on oven and wraps etc if your only going to do 3 mugs per week.

[Daninho]

It's not simply down to the mug press. The standard of the mugs being pressed is also critical for a full height print.

Although some in here have no problems achieving this, the only method that's ever worked reliably for me was a halogen oven.

I ordered the Subliglaze AAA 11oz mugs from print equipment here in germany. The thing is i watched a youtube video yesterday and i guess those guys have an online shop about mugs they design with various famous themes, like Disney, Marvel etc.. They are mostly sublimated from top to bottom and they look not bad. Thats why i thought it is important to have this top to bottom print, however i will not sale mugs in the future, its basically just a hobby or just for fun for myself and maybe family but i do want to achieve the best results possible.

I guess its kind of an ambition thing Thats why i havent spend millions in equipment but all stuff i bought so far are reasonable good products like that Epson Ecotank, Subliinova ink, S-Race paper and i got that Stahls 40x50 heat press for an extremely good price of 150 Euro, so i was lucky there. This machine was nearly brand new and im still buzzing about it. Now i am searching a mug press, i would say 200 Euro is my limit but cheaper would be better of course. My favourite so far is the Microtec

https://signzworld.co.uk/shop/microtec- ... mug-press/

But only an oven can achive the top to bottom ressults i might buy an oven or both since the ovens are kind of cheap and i dont need a large oven at all.

This is the video i watched yesterday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFREG_ZqOHk

[Daninho]

I do full prints fine in my press.
And the halogen oven you have linked is the most expensive one any reason for that?

The first question you need to look at.
How many mugs are you going to be making?
Is it worth spending out a fortune on oven and wraps etc if your only going to do 3 mugs per week.

Actually i wont even do 3 mugs per week i guess, its like only when i have the mood and need for a gift or something like that, its just a hobby. I know it sounds stupid but it all started with this cameo plotter for adhesive vinyl and i thought why not buy a cheap heat press on Ebay and i can make me and my family some T-shirts and i found that Stahls clam basic 40x50 in a brand new condition for 150 Euro from a company that prints packages for Jägermeister and other famous brands on huge print machines and they had this machine to try new offerings but they almost never used it in the end and sold everything.

As i got the heat press and made some shirts with HTV i thought wait a minute, why not buy a cheap sublimation printer :biggrin:

No that oven is actually the one thats also sold by print equipment, so i just thought it must be good for that purpose.

[Mrteajunkie]

Lol so you got the bug for it.
It can spiral out of control but maybe you could start selling mugs and T-shirt’s for some pocket money or to just recoup the costs of the machines.

[rabb]

Do yourself a favour and buy either a halogen or convection oven with wraps.

[Daninho]

Do yourself a favour and buy either a halogen or convection oven with wraps.

Its already to late, bloody hell. I couldnt resist and ordered that microtec machine from signzworld, it was already dispatched in the morning. I heard your advice though and bought an ofen as well It is the same one i linked but for 20 Euro, only used once. So if the mug press fails i will try the Ofen method.

Mrteajunkie [INDENT] Lol so you got the bug for it.
It can spiral out of control but maybe you could start selling mugs and T-shirt’s for some pocket money or to just recoup the costs of the machines. [/INDENT]

Yes, that is true, when i try out new things like HTV, Sublimation or in the past drones and other stuff it has to be done right and it actually brings fun to test and experiment to get the best results i guess. I was trying to get your mug press for a good price but those offers i saw were actually from china, even if it said UK in the disription. It was to much risk to order them from such a chinese shop even though i have good experience with banggood and gearbest but in that case it was an unknown chinese Ebay shop, thats why i went for the microtec at signzworld. I used the 10% code and i think this is a pretty solid machine.

[Daninho]

Today i did my first two mugs with the microtec machine and i gained the first expierence with mug pressing and sublimation in general because i only sublimeted two pieces of cotton before. What i can tell is that the mug press seems a bit on the weaker side because the first press i did was at 180 degree Celsius and since this press has no idle time i started my own timer with 70 secs after it reached 180C which took ages and in general the press needed 257 seconds in complete. I had no fading on my first mug but since the time sounded crazy long to me and the paper was already a bit brownish i decided to go for a different setting on my next mug. This time i went for 190C /180 seconds.

I have like 7 time settings gathered from alot of youtube videos and i want to check them all. The 190C - 180secs setting is actually used in many videos of the freesub ST-130 press. However the result was slight fading at the bottom, the top was good and the blacks were better compared to the first one which i think was maybe a tiny bit brownish but hard to tell.

What i can also tell is that machine smells like hell, i could hardly breath, an extremely chemical smell and i felt dizzy after it. I am not sure how i can counter the fading at the bottom, i will test another 3-4 mugs and then try the halogen oven. I dipped both mugs in boiling water to cool them down smoothly.

So overall this wasnt the result i hoped for but i am pleased with the colors, saturation, sharpness and black levels, especially the 2nd mug had good blacks. The only problem is the fading at the bottom. So maybe i just need to go a little bit longer, lets say 190C and 200 seconds or 220 or i should try 180C and 220 seconds. I just feel the machine is weak, maybe it has a bug in the software because realized that the temperature always stops 3 degrees before your target temperature you set which is strange, its like it pauses for 20 seconds and then heat up again, i can see that the heat symbol is blinking when this happends.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6056[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6057[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6058[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6059[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6060[/ATTACH]

[webtrekker]

I heat my press up to 180 with a blank mug in then remove the blank and replace with the wrapped mug. The temp immediately drops back into the 150 to 160 range so I let it come back up to 180 before triggering the timer, which I have set at 200 secs.

Fumes are common with a new press and will die off after you've used it for a while.