DSF

I'm looking at the following:

http://www.printerowners.co.uk/hardware ... -press.htm

http://www.coralgraph.com/heat-press/fl ... -new-model

i would prefer a clam style to save space but just aren't sure. Was thinking around the £200-£250 mark but I know that some "cheap" presses are no good. How cheap is too cheap though?

No replies is because all the info is already done to death.
Sit back with an urn of tea, search the forum.
All will be revealed for you to decide.
A bit blunt but, research for yourself and members will be really helpful.

Janners

i paid £1200 for my stahls clam press , this is a good sturdy reliable press , im not rich , im not stupid with money i have a good few years in the industry so im not new to this so ask yourself so why would i pay a grand more than i need to for a press then make your mind up based on that

If I was wanted a press for tablet and phone cases then I would only buy a 3D machine.

Far better results.

socialgiraffe;83169 wrote:If I was wanted a press for tablet and phone cases then I would only buy a 3D machine.

Far better results.

hello giraffe..long time no speak

in reply to your reply - yes 3d may give better results/print finish than the traditional sub way of printing but -

• to fiddly unless you got the film (more expensive ) and not the paper time wasting rubbish....spend more time faffing with the sodding paper and getting the corners right...and even then :rolleyes:
• to expensive to resell....people grudge paying £8-£14+ for a personalised phone case...you will get people buying them, but i would say - the minority, rather the the majority
• only got 3 sales in - dam you need to fire up the 3d machine for 3 sales...thats a lot of energy just to print 2/3 cases....yes, you could wait till you get more sales in to make it worth while firing the beast up, but if you on ebay/amazon, one dont have the luxury of "time to wait" - they want there cases personalised yesterday !....and i aint kidding here either.

so...one has to weigh up the pros/cons here....we looked and are still looking at 3d machine but we are keeping our business heads on here with these machines as i think, and have said for the last yr or so now,the market for these things has NOT taken off...mainly due to price of EQ, and resale price to the general public personalised....

now..this tech (3d )has been around for the last few yrs now....and i personally DO NOT think it will ever boom the same as the conventional heat press's for any sublimation work, for the reasons stated above....like 3d tellys...its there and its something different....but only if one has money to spare / fling away to try it and see....

we been doing just fine with the "normal" way for the last year n half quality wise, so cant complain

but each to there own in this line of work....not everybody has the same outlook and business ethics, thats what makes us all interesting , then again, there are some boring ol farts lol

... the other con, is that a standard heat press is more versatile, and can print on a whole load of substrates/blanks, whereas for the moment vacuum presses only seem to do phone cases, so in effect, it's a much more expensive machine which does less.

Hi BigJ

It certainly has been a while. In response to some of your points.

to fiddly unless you got the film (more expensive ) and not the paper time wasting rubbish....spend more time faffing with the sodding paper and getting the corners right...and even then

I thought this myself, however, I have been looking at 3D for a while now as I have a particular project in mind. Scotty at BMS managed to source a secondhand machine (used about two or three times) just down the road from me which I picked up at a bargain price. Took it home and decided to make a case for my iphone and prepared myself for the problems of wrapping and inconsistency that I have read on this forum. Taking my time to read the research on wrapping my first cover took less than 1 minute and I suspect that when I get used to it then it could well be 20-30 seconds per cover.Bearing in mind that a cover takes about 7 minutes in the machine and holds 12 at a time then there is plenty of time to wrap while others are cooking if you are on a run.

to expensive to resell....people grudge paying £8-£14+ for a personalised phone case...you will get people buying them, but i would say - the minority, rather the the majority

I do not understand why a 3D case is more expensive than a normal case to purchase. The blank stock is actually cheaper than the stand "flat bed" style of case. I do accept that it takes a tad longer to wrap and if someone said to me that a 3D case is £1.00 more I would probably accept it. But in general you are looking at double the price but for no apparent reason apart from the fact that people are prepared to pay silly money for a 3D case (god knows why!)

only got 3 sales in - dam you need to fire up the 3d machine for 3 sales...thats a lot of energy just to print 2/3 cases....yes, you could wait till you get more sales in to make it worth while firing the beast up, but if you on ebay/amazon, one dont have the luxury of "time to wait" - they want there cases personalised yesterday !....and i aint kidding here either.

Granted on this mate, but have a couple of questions, firstly does the 3D machine use considerably more electricity that a standard press? I have both but to be honest have not looked at electricity usage. I agree that a one off would be a pain, but that is not the fault of the product, it just needs to be either more aggressively marketed, cheaper priced or just better marketing. I am not criticizing here mate, just think that the finished product is better than a standard cover (see my note below about this). It is also worth pointing out that the original thread was specific to phone and tablet cases. If there was only three or four orders then a more serious problem is that they need more orders

Interestingly on the point about me thinking a 3D cover is nicer, I was having this conversation with Carl from TMT. He showed me one of his black standard cases and I must admit it was bloomin good and I really do not think that the customer would not give a rats arse between 3D and his flat one. The only issue i have with that is that I was comparing it to my 3D one in which I used a photograph of my daughter that I just happen to have on my desktop, obviously the photograph used on the TMT one had been chosen carefully they knew it would look the nuts on a cover. My point there is that the 3D ones will/do make an average photograph look better (in my opinion).


In general thought I 100% agree with you on 3D and I have only purchased this machine because it was cheap, I have an idea for it and as I have given up smoking I have cash burning a hole in my pocket now instead of in my lungs My original post to this thread was based on, if you are only going to do phone/tablet cases then a 3D machine would be the way to go as it seems to me that it is totally geared to that market. It would be great to see more products for this sort of machine and I do have a couple of ideas that I may try and develop and possibly speak to peeps about at P&P.

Would I buy a 3D machine myself as the first press, NO way as it is not my market.

Would I buy one if I only wanted to do phone/tablet covers YES

... the other con, is that a standard heat press is more versatile, and can print on a whole load of substrates/blanks, whereas for the moment vacuum presses only seem to do phone cases, so in effect, it's a much more expensive machine which does less.

Not sure you can call it a con Pisquee as I do not see any resellers making claims about these machines that can not be justified, and to be fair the original thread was solely about phone/tablet cases.

Also, It does not do less than a standard heat press, they can not be compared as they are completely different products and do different things.

pisquee;83545 wrote:... the other con, is that a standard heat press is more versatile, and can print on a whole load of substrates/blanks, whereas for the moment vacuum presses only seem to do phone cases, so in effect, it's a much more expensive machine which does less.

Thats simply not true they can be used for a lot of blanks http://printermaker.com/3D-Sublimation- ... -p938.html surprisingly even t-shirts can be used in them.