New memeber in Shepperton, UK.

[lotus72]

hi all, have just joined the forum. I'm not new to heat presses as 25 years ago I used to produce t-shirts with a heat press. I remember the biggest thing I found out was to flip the image before I printed it off the PC!
Got interested in dye press stuff after watching a TV series here called 'Escape to the Chateau' where Angel Strawbridge, one of the presenters, printed her own tiles for use in the house and in particular their kitchen and thought it was a really neat idea. I wanted to ask one thing, initially, how hard wearing are the transfers on the tiles, can anyone tell me? Thanks for listening and look forward to any replies. All the best.

[webtrekker]

Hi. First off, dyesub tiles aren't your standard tiles. They have a special polymer coating to receive the inks, as do all sublimation blanks: mugs, plates, coasters, keyrings etc. Garments, such as t-shirts must contain a large % of polyester.

Sublimation prints are permanent and very hard wearing, but performance obviously depends on the quality of the polymer coating. I had mugs from China when I first began sublimating and the printed images faded after the first few dishwashings, whereas the mugs I use now are as good as the day they were printed, almost 5 years ago! So make sure you buy decent stuff from a reputable supplier.

[lotus72]

Many thanks for that info, I hadn't realised that the tiles were special ones, any pointers to where I can get some?

[Justin]

Welcome to the forum, tiles print really well but you have to be careful what cleaning substances you use on them. Also, if they are in the sun the image can fade due to the UV.

I've heard of a few buying heat presses because of that episode

Justin
DSF Admin