trademarc

Help with printer and or heatpress issue

Recommended Posts

I recently purchased a Sawgrass sg800 with the sublijet ink and a Blue Ox 15x15 clamshell heat press.  I had been making the same t-shirts on different equipment prior to this and when I printed out the picture it looked great but when I went to heat press it, it was a different story when. I would do a test with a portion of a picture it came out great when I tried to heat press the whole thing it wouldn't let the ink seed  into the material.  I tried different heat settings different length of time and when I do the test it's fine and when I do the whole thing it messes up. I am using the paper that I used with the Epson printer it's standard sublimation paper. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I use texprint-r paper that is made for the ricohs because if you print several the gel ink will smudge as one page hits another if you don't. but I doubt that is the problem on a single sheet - you might want to check the actual temp of the platen with an IR thermometer and check different areas around the plated to make sure it is heating evenly

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you.  I got in touch with Sawgrass and they recommended a few different papers to use so I ordered paper.  Going to try that.  I'm just confused with the heat press because I did one on a shirt I had already messed up and it worked out fine so I said okay I've got it set right and when I put it on to a shirt that didn't have anything on it yet it messed up and that happened twice.  But I'm going to try your suggestion as well.  I haven't had any trouble with the heat press doing the vinyl but of course that's a whole different ballgame.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You would be surprised at how much difference any change makes, speaking of slight temp changes and slight cook time changes as well as pressure. I did some testing on strips of cloth and found you can change the color about 4 shades just by varying the cook time or temp. Not to mention the actual CMYK settings. Some colors are more forgiving but blues are especially touchy. You should have a better time of it than I did due to the sawgrass printer being superior to the Epson I have but there are a LOT of variables. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now