Large sublimation

[Scott Shepherd]

I understand Larry, I know you are experimenting, I just want to have some opposing viewpoint on here for people reading, because, as mentioned in a previous thread and acknowledged by Keith, his market is very different than most people's markets on here and what works for him, probably won't work for many other markets. I all for people trying new things. I just want to put some more data points out there before people spend a pile of money on stuff only to find out it doesn't work for their market.

I hope you find a solution that works for you. I've tried many things.

You are right about the 1/4" corian. I think I remember looking at the pricing on it and 1/4" costs more than 1/2" by the sq. ft. It's really expensive stuff considering it's only 1/4".

I'm sure you'll turn them into something nice, no matter if it's dye sub or laser engraving!

[Keith Outten]

The quality of a dye-sublimation transfer on Corian can be near excellent, it depends mainly on the quality of the photograph. The large Peek A Boo picture that I dye-sublimated was a 25 meg digital picture taken by a professional photographer. The quality of this Corian print is amazing, you can see every hair in the picture and the detail in the baby's eyes is awesome. Although you can't get the high gloss finish dye-sublimating Corian a matte finish to minor gloss look is possible depending on how much time you are willing to spend polishing.

In my mind, even though Corian can't compete with the very high gloss dye-sub finishes you can get with aluminum and other products, it has a place in my product offerings because of the WOW factor. People are amazed when they hold them in their hands, knowing that their personal photograph has been captured in a piece of solid surface material. Commercial customers are also impressed when you provide a very unique picture of a building their company built that can hang in their office lobby.

Scott is right when he said that I rarely work for non-commercial customers. Normally I prefer to market large companies that can afford the types of projects I can provide that are more profitable for my company. A Corian dye-sub picture is also a means to provide another unique piece to remind my sign customers that I can provide alternative techniques that make my company different than the more traditional and larger sign companies. I also use Corian dye-sub as a marketing tool when I need to get my foot in the door with a company that I haven't done business with, large companies can be difficult to start a business relationship but they are always open to innovative products that make their company stand out from their competitors.

In a nutshell I found that I can't make a living working for the general public. Many of the small jobs that some people provide like employee badges, coffee cups, rubber stamps and vinyl door signs I provide my customers for free. The cost to provide these items on a small scale is insignificant compared to a large sign contract for an 80 million dollar building and I don't want these companies to go to my competitors for trinkets they need on occasion. Because the ADA door sign business is profitable the small stuff is easy to give away as long as it has my company name on it somewhere
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[Scott Shepherd]

Keith, you and I are 100% on the same page. Yes, the images are clear and detailed on Corian, no issues with that at all. It's not the detail, but the saturation and the gloss I'm talking about.

I agree with you 100% and you have said this all before, but I think it gets lost in threads some time and people think "Oh, Keith's doing it and it works for him, so I can do it too", when in fact, they are in a very different business than yours. That's all I'm trying to remind people of because I think it gets lost many times in these posts that you have a very unique situation that doesn't apply to everyone.

Now if you own your own press and do dye sub, I say "Give it a try", however, if you are thinking about buying a press and dye sub setup to get into doing corian, I'd say "give it a second thought".

[Larry Bratton]

I agree with both of you. I have all the tools of the trade, as Keith knows (he was at my place once) and we didn't purchase the sublimation printer with Corian in mind. I have tried to follow Keith's advice since I met him, knowing he is successful at what he does. Since moving down to this location, we did try the approach of trying to market to the individual and it has just been a dismal failure. People here want to purchase at flea market or yard sale prices. So, our marketing effort is now directed to businesses only. We are working diligently to develop products that fit this market and utilize the equipment we have. No, it certainly would not be a good idea to run out and buy a sublimation setup with the idea of using it with Corian only. I can envision that as being a difficult endeavor, even if it did work. My thinking it that the only colors that are going to work would be Glacier White and Champagne for sublimation. Unless you have CNC or woodworking tools, 1/4" is what your limited to for laser cutting and it is hard to find. I do like the idea of Corian as being presented as an ice breaker and if you can walk in with a product made from it, it is a great lead in to the other things and services you can provide. I always like to show a product that demonstrates my ability and quality when talking to potential customers, so an engraved piece of Corian with some color added by sublimation can fill that bill.

[Keith Outten]

I've always thought that you could make a pretty good part time income with nothing more than a heat press and a dye-sub printer. Working at home with very little overhead you could market a few small to medium companies who would use your services or you could team up with a successful trophy shop that would benefit from adding dye-sublimation services to their product line and didn't have the manpower. If you consider how many products you can create with just a couple of machines and very little space it seems to be a great place to start. The upfront investment is very inexpensive when compared with just about any other business and if you live near a college or large University there is a huge market that will more then get you started making T-Shirts, coffee mugs and a host of other personalized stuff. Don't get involved with any logos, stick with dye-sub of personal items like pictures and photo door signs for the dormitories.

Your photo editing skills with make or break you in the dye-sub arena.
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