Vacuum Heat Press Ovens for Dye Sublimation

[ZooCity]

Anyone use one of these?  They look like the way to fly for mugs, etc. 

We have our first mug order upcoming and are mulling the vac oven v. a clamp attachment for our DC16 AP press.  I'm leaning toward oven due to the pressing time per pc but there's a lot of alibaba looking options out there to sift through, which ones are good qual and design?

I don't expect we will be able to do larger runs cost effectively, that would go out to a larger house that gets a better rate on the blank items of course, this is for shorter runs and for clients that specifically want their goods printed in the region.  Still, those orders will probably be in the 48-100pc range from what we're seeing so far.

Thanks in advance.

[Homer]

we just ran our first run of mugs. I bought 3 of the clamp style presses, worked out great, nice and efficient. I thought the vacuums were for phone cases and things like that? I never really looked into them too much, we're slowly getting into dye sub. The best place I found mugs was US cutter...shipping was like 10 bucks....15 oz mugs, nobody wants the 120z anymore. Everywhere else I looked mugs were ridiculously expensive, like Conde..there prices are nutty

[Frog]

we just ran our first run of mugs. I bought 3 of the clamp style presses, worked out great, nice and efficient. I thought the vacuums were for phone cases and things like that? I never really looked into them too much, we're slowly getting into dye sub. The best place I found mugs was US cutter...shipping was like 10 bucks....15 oz mugs, nobody wants the 120z anymore. Everywhere else I looked mugs were ridiculously expensive, like Conde..there prices are nutty

Are all mugs, or at least their coatings, created equal?

[Homer]

d'hell if I know....

[ZooCity]

My thought was to use those silicone mug wraps and pop them in the vac press with the vac off presumably and run 6-12 at a time v. one by one in the clamp press.   The vac unit could be used with the vac on for pieces with that have a 3d component to them as a bonus.

That said, I'm sort of eyeing commercial convection toaster ovens.  Seems like less of an electrical fire risk than a chinese heat press.

What about wrapping the mugs and sending them down the dryer at 400deg?

[mimosatexas]

The wraps take like 15 minutes to work, but you can do a bunch at once and prep the next round while they bake. Ends up being faster than any other option for large orders. We do a bunch of mugs, though I'm not actually the one doing them so I don't know the details.

[royster13]

I don't expect we will be able to do larger runs cost effectively, that would go out to a larger house that gets a better rate on the blank items of course, this is for shorter runs and for clients that specifically want their goods printed in the region.  Still, those orders will probably be in the 48-100pc range from what we're seeing so far.

How do your numbers look?...In the US you should be able to buy 36 15 oz. mugs all in for about 125.00 to 150.00 depending on location.....

[ZooCity]

Do you use the conveyor dryer or an oven mimosa? 

Wraps seem like the best way to go but I'm not sure I want to interrupt screen printing production to run mugs down a cranked up dryer, would prefer a standalone convection or little conveyor, both of which hix makes for the purpose, but they both draw a lot of amps, amps that we don't really have available here.  So it looks like we'll be limited to the mug press or maybe a smaller tabletop oven with high convection.

royster, we're actually a little below that landed for a 15oz basic, classic mug qty36.

[mimosatexas]

We use a standard kitchen oven, some cheapo electric unit.  I believe we do 18 mugs at a time (9 mugs each on two cookie sheets), 15 minute cook time.  I hear you about the amperage issue, but I would just plan to run them early or late around shirt production.

[Sbrem]

I've done short run mugs for family, but find it way too tedious to consider offering to customers, I'd rather farm it out. I was printing on sub paper with a $50.00 epson printer, and have a George Knight clamp style mug press. They come out great, but are slow. About 4 minutes in the press, then right into a bucket of water, peel the transfer tape, and voila, a mug with a picture on it!

Steve