Sublimating ceramic tile... face up? or face down?

[Dan Hintz]

I swore off of Conde after their marketing department decided my clicks to their unsubscribe links on every email were better off ignored. It wasn't until I sent multiple nastily-worded emails to a number of different email addresses at their company did I finally see a reduction in spam from them. Spam is spam, no matter the sender.

[Scott Shepherd]

That's interesting. I'm a customer and I get one newsletter a month from my sales rep and it's a welcome newsletter with good information. No spam, nothing else at all. Really odd. I would rate them as one of my top 3 vendors. Speed, accuracy, pricing, and their ability to give a crap about me and my order means a lot to me. When I order things, my phone usually rings shortly after that, it's my sales rep (which I LOVE having a sales rep), and she's confirming the order and the ability to ship it that day.

I'll kill if I had a real live sales rep at Johnson or JDS. It's just some random order taker. I want a person I can build a relationship with and contact when I want to discuss pricing or other issues.

Conde's setup for the Ricoh printers is far better than the sawgrass power driver, in my opinion. It's sad to see people with a bad impression of one of my top 3, but such is life. I guess in order for me to have great service, someone had to suffer

[Amy Shelton]

I guess we'll continue with tile face down until we get a chance to experiment. But we saw it done face-up in person at the JDS seminar, so it must work, at least for
little 4x4 tiles.

I love the idea of a tile-wrap, Mike! I haven't tried a mug wrap yet, but if that works, I see no reason why a wrap for tile wouldn't work.

Regarding customer service, I have had extremely good service from both Conde and JDS, and Johnson Plastic as well (only ordered once from them so far).
I have the same experience as Steve with the Conde emails. Maybe they quit the multiple emails to everyone after your "suggestions", Dan! I don't like tons of emails, either,
even if it's from a company I'm interested in.

Gary, I didn't realize you didn't have to use heat tape. I was afraid to try it without it. Thanks for the tip.

[Gary Hair]

Gary, I didn't realize you didn't have to use heat tape. I was afraid to try it without it. Thanks for the tip.

For anything larger than 4" it's pretty easy to ensure they don't move. It gets real interesting when you do a platen full of 2" tiles, it just seems like there is no way the would stay in place, but they do somehow...

Gary

[Gary Hair]

Wow Gary, that's a strong statement there Sorry you had a bad experience with them.

Every vendor has problems and has made mistakes, I judge them on how they handle their mistakes. The problem I had with Conde would have been easily rectified yet they chose to give excuses and place blame elsewhere, 'nuff said.

The one that always gets me is how many people complain about the ink cost. I always wonder why they do complain so much. If you are worried about ink costs, either you don't have enough work or you're not charging enough

Same thing with Cermark. It doesn't "cost" me a penny, it makes me thousands! My last 250g tub probably made me a minimum of $25,000 - not a bad investment in my opinion. I'm working on reclaiming it after lasering, if I can find a time-effective way to reclaim it then I think I'll practically never run out of it. The job I use it on the most is probably only really "using" about 5% of the cermark I apply, the rest is washed off unused. If I can reclaim the other 95% I'll be money ahead. It just needs to make sense to spend the time though - why spend time, at $120/hour, reclaiming something worth less than that?

Gary

[Martin Boekers]

Tried to delete this as it was posted multiple times, delete didn't work!

[Martin Boekers]

I do dye sub tile and CLTT to tiles.

On the Dye Sub, I transfer tile up, one at a time as tiles aren't consistant on height.
Works fine for me, I use a Geo Knight press, just the nylon sheet, there may be
issues with other presses. I don't do many ceramic tiles (Dye Sub) because of the
press time, certain products need it though. For standard boxes and pen holders etc I
have switched to hardboard tiles unless client requests ceramic. Hardboard is cheaper
and quicker.

On CLTT I transfer tile up also, with a rubber pad works great big seller! 3min at 400 degrees.
Tile cheap about 50cents can do 2 - 6x6 at a time. My problem is finding Matte surface tiles still.
Most big box stores only sell glossy now. Tried flooring shop (local) to no avail, so I spray the glossy ones now!?

Not sure why Dye Sub tiles are so expensive, the way I understand it is just a regular tile with a spray coating.
So why is it $4 more for the coating any ideas?

Yes ink is expensive, though with the Ricoh printers almost no waste, I guess I noticed it more with the Epson line
it cost a small fortune to get consistant products through that printer!!!

I tried Cermark a few years back, the company was going through some changes, spent $100 or so on the product
and couldn't get it to work. Then they merged and evidently changed the formula. They came up with a special
offer I called to see if they would replace the tub I bought with the new product (replace not send it free I would send
them the unuasable one) They refused so I stayed away. Could I sell items with Cermark probably yes, will I probably no.
So we all have different experiences with vendors, again it's how we are treated when something goes wrong.
It's all easy when things go right.


I have had good experiences with Conde, they have helped out in a few jams.

JDS has been great, yes there has been some issues in the past, with certain product lines and inventories,
but they have always made things as right as they can. I do give them input from time to time and if anyone
has an issue that they are having problems with PM me and I will give you a direct contact to someone
there who has been great at working things out and receiving input.

Marty

[Scott Challoner]

On CLTT I transfer tile up also, with a rubber pad works great big seller! 3min at 400 degrees.
Marty

Marty

Can you tell me what paper you use? I have been using Magic Touch paper for ceramic tiles without much luck. I used their recommendations which are quite different than what you listed (300 degrees with light pressure for 2 1/2 minutes). I also used a green foam pad instead of the silicone. Maybe that's my problem.

[Martin Boekers]

I use Magic Touch CPM 6.4

I prefer a bit hotter and err to that side as opposed cooler, same with the pressure more towards medium.
I to use the green pad so that shouldn't be an issue. One thing I do is to make sure the front surface of the
tile is clean of all dust as that will create adhesion problems. Been real happy with the product and consistancy.
I tried the fabric transfer and that didn't work too well for me.

I set the tiles on a thick piece of aluminum to cool down before removing the transfer paper, tile coolers are
expensive and the aluminum does fine.

Last year I did over 1200 tiles which isn't too bad. Most go in a mural frame I get from LRI (for 6- 6x6" tiles)
not the best frame, but cheap enough to get a pretty good mark up. Haven't been able to find anything close
(in that price range)

Good luck!

Tiles are a money maker for me.


Marty

[Scott Challoner]

Thanks for answering my question and the additional information. Very much appreciated Marty.