OWJones

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I just got an order of dog tags in and they are different than what I used to use and I ended up ruining 6 of them trying to get the time/temp just right. The guidelines you read are just that guidelines, a starting point to get you close but that's about it. I read some instructions for sublimation the other day that said 360' and I know I've read technical data that says sub. doesn't transfer below 400' so I used 400 to start and ended up at 440 for 120 to get a good clean image doing both sides of the dog tags at once.

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can't remember what but something I do subs at 385 - glad to hear your temps though for when I do some dog tags

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I just got an order of dog tags in and they are different than what I used to use and I ended up ruining 6 of them trying to get the time/temp just right. The guidelines you read are just that guidelines, a starting point to get you close but that's about it. I read some instructions for sublimation the other day that said 360' and I know I've read technical data that says sub. doesn't transfer below 400' so I used 400 to start and ended up at 440 for 120 to get a good clean image doing both sides of the dog tags at once.

 

The dye sublimatable business cards I get from LRI suggest 370° for single sided pressing and 385° for double-sided.  That's the lowest temperature sublimation product I've found so far and they transfer just fine. I suspect it's partly because they're so friggin' thin.

 

Nearly everything else I stock is 400° recommended, although I have some DynaSub dog tags that call for 385°...

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I have never gun tested my press but I've never had issues until these. The old tags from Paramount were 2 glued together to get 2 coated sides and I never did both sides at once because of how thick they were. The new ones they have are a more conventional single tag so I thought hey lets save a pressing and do them at 1 time. I can tell you their recommendations are quite a bit  off and the above settings resulted in a clean image with excellent color transfer. The paper is the type you recommended before (can't remember the name) and it worked flawlessly.

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I have never gun tested my press but I've never had issues until these. The old tags from Paramount were 2 glued together to get 2 coated sides and I never did both sides at once because of how thick they were. The new ones they have are a more conventional single tag so I thought hey lets save a pressing and do them at 1 time. I can tell you their recommendations are quite a bit  off and the above settings resulted in a clean image with excellent color transfer. The paper is the type you recommended before (can't remember the name) and it worked flawlessly.

 

The DynaSub tags I bought have a clear plastic protective cover on one side that is very obvious - lots of bubbles make it clear that something is there that needs to be removed - on the other side the clear cover is invisible enough that I assumed it wasn't there... that made for a messy back side on the first few I tried...   There is a learning curve with every new product we try, I suppose...

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The dye sublimatable business cards I get from LRI suggest 370° for single sided pressing and 385° for double-sided.  That's the lowest temperature sublimation product I've found so far and they transfer just fine. I suspect it's partly because they're so friggin' thin.

 

Nearly everything else I stock is 400° recommended, although I have some DynaSub dog tags that call for 385°...

Due to the cost when a print doesn't work and the fact that a little extra heat doesn't hurt anything I never go below 400. To get an idea how the temp runs on my press I have 1 setting that works for Siser, Thermoflex, and 3G opaque (355'F) and another for jpss and a baseline for sub which is 400'F. A little high on the jpss but never had an issue and this way I only need to remember 2 settings on the press.

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The DynaSub tags I bought have a clear plastic protective cover on one side that is very obvious - lots of bubbles make it clear that something is there that needs to be removed - on the other side the clear cover is invisible enough that I assumed it wasn't there... that made for a messy back side on the first few I tried...   There is a learning curve with every new product we try, I suppose...

The new ones from Paramount only have the plastic on one side (don't know why) and I scratced one to crap tryin to find the plastic on the back that wasn't even there. Messy is dropping the press on a dark transfer w/o Siser Mask or parchment paper. That'll leave a mark even with teflon sheets.

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The new ones from Paramount only have the plastic on one side (don't know why) and I scratced one to crap tryin to find the plastic on the back that wasn't even there. Messy is dropping the press on a dark transfer w/o Siser Mask or parchment paper. That'll leave a mark even with teflon sheets.

I made that mistake - once. That is when I found out how awesome Hot Melt press cleaner can be...

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