sublimation basic tutorial

[kobblers]

ok, here goes....pardon the qulaity of the pictures, i've used my phone to take them as i don't have a digicam.

 

first off you need to create your design for reproducing onto your sublimatable item.

 

 

then you need to set your printer. choose best photo quality or similar and select 'plain paper'

 

 

ensure that you choose 'mirror image' for your printing.

 

 

then print your image.

you will find that the image sometimes doesn't look right on the paper, faded etc but it will still reproduce as it's meant to when subjected to heat.

 

cut out your design leaving plenty of overlap for folding around your item.

 

 

centralize onto your item, unprinted side up.

 

 

secure the overlapped edges to the back of your product using heatproof tape.

 

 

press.....

 

 

let cool and remove the transfer paper and hey presto, you have a perfectly sublimated image.

for this example i've used brushed 7" x 3"aluminium in the hopes it would photograph better.

 

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[kobblers]

the whole process above took me 10 mins including editing the pic. i've noticed that on a lot of photos i have to lighten them a bit or they come out pretty dark, it may be my printer though, i'll let you know if things improve when i finally set up my bulk feed printer.

 

rick.

 

ps i tried to move this into the tutorails section but couldn't figure out how

[ANDY]

I had a load of polo shirts with three seperate areas to print on the front,

ranging from tiny kids to XL. I wanted to get the positioning spot on so I came up with this template. basically I just measured each shirt and deleted the outline before printing

[Lee]

cracking post, sublimation seams to complement what we already do really well.

what are the set up costs to this?

 

Lee

[ANDY]

cost us about £2400.00 at Trophex. for that we got a couple of heat presses one for flat work, the other for mugs, A3 printer and all the gubbins plus a load of stock too. we have only been running it for about 4 weeks and we have dedicated our front window to sublimation. my favourite order so far has been for a group of lads going to amsterdam. they wanted a ten inch cannabis leaf printed on the front of their shirts. I put a pair of rubber gloves and a pot of vaseline in with their order

[Danny King]

Hi,

Set up isn't expensive, We have been doing this for 6 Years and is great

 

The only thing that upsets me is there are alot of people chucking this stuff out at very silly low prices.

 

You are offering a very personalsed item so don't under price this stuff.

[ironplanet uk900]

Hi,

Set up isn't expensive, We have been doing this for 6 Years and is great

 

The only thing that upsets me is there are alot of people chucking this stuff out at very silly low prices.

 

You are offering a very personalsed item so don't under price this stuff.

 

Danny,

Unfortunately this happens in every trade. There is always somebody prepared to do the job for little profit.

They usually have to compromise on quality, which leads to dissatisfaction and bad customer relations.

I always stick to quality and customer service, your reputation grows with time, and a good reputation built on solid foundations will far outlive TWO BOB BILLY.

Keep doing what you do best, at your best and you will always come shining through.

[ironplanet uk900]

Nice one Rick, thanks.

 

Keep it going

[Lee]

ps i tried to move this into the tutorails section but couldn't figure out how

 

The tutorials page has to be manually edited from my end. NOT all tutorials make it to this prestigious page. My sharpening tutorial was so unethical & badly received it never made it & ended up on the cutting room floor.

I have added your tutorial to a new section called printing.

 

It won't be long before the tutorials page will have to be split up into sections its getting to long!

 

Keep up the good work one and all

 

Lee

[Michael]

Whats the approx retail price for this type of thing i.e. mugs , t-shirts etc.

 

Is it a good mark-up

 

What sort of outlay would you have to get some decent stock, materials, printer, consumables, presses etc.

 

Thx

[Craig Gardner]

Whats the approx retail price for this type of thing i.e. mugs , t-shirts etc.

 

Is it a good mark-up

 

What sort of outlay would you have to get some decent stock, materials, printer, consumables, presses etc.

 

Thx

 

3K will set you up nicely with plenty of stock and a good cis. a mug costs about £1.50 ink ink paper and vat and we retail for £7.99

mouse mats about £2 i sell at £8.99

jig saws £3 i sell at £9.99

lighters £3 i sell at £14.99

most gifts about the same margin i tend not to do much t shirts mainy custom gifts thats where the profit is i dont stock t shirts but charge between £5 and £10 to put a image on a customers own tshirt depending on how much ink it would use a full a4 colour page ink and paper would cost about £1 i guess.

The margins on this are still better than engraving as not as many people offer this service at least not within the hour anyway. Asda do mugs at £6.99 but take 14 days and wont put text on pic only.

 

Craig