Rocky Beginning

[Bill W. White]

I was wondering now that I've done a few transfers on corian and might add been dissapointed that maybe I need to adjust the time and tempt or both. If I cook the corian too long what happens to the picture? If it is not cooked long enough what should I expect. When I take the corian out of heat press it sure seems solid and not soft or pliable. Maybe I need to calibrate the temp on heat press? I'm using the time and temp Keith suggested (20 min. @320) I also want to work with the .25 inch and was wondering what would be a good starting time and temp. I called Conde and talked with David Gross and he is willing to work with me on setting up the correct colors for the ricoh printer even though I didn't buy my equipment from them, What a nice man and a class act. So the color part hopefully will be taken care of in morning and then all I will need to do is get the technique down for the corian. I realize that I won't get the same great colors that are obtainable on other stuff but just want my work on corian to be as good as possible. Thanks Bill W.

[Keith Outten]

Bill,

After 20 minutes at 320 degrees F your Corian should be very soft and pliable. When you remove it from the press it should start bending right away, I don't know how I could explain it other than to say that it should be very easy to bend. If Corian doesn't get soft enough than you probably don't have enough heat saturation to support the dye-sub transfer, remember that the ink should be about 2 to 3 thousandths of an inch deep in the material not just on the surface.

As I still haven't had time to try 1/4" thick Corian I can't help with the time adjustment. I do expect that the 20 minute saturation period will be shorter than 1/2" Corian though. I am very close to finishing a new building at CNU so I will be taking some pictures of the building to dye-sublimate on 1/4" Corian as soon as the construction gates have been removed. When I work out the new soak time schedule I will be sure to post it here, I expect the temperature to remain at 320 F.

The heat press that I use is very old and I don't know if the 320 degree figure is accurate. What I do know is that Ken Dolph gave me that figure a few years ago and it works for him so I expect his press and mine are close to the same temperature. I borrowed am Omega thermometer from a friend to check my heat press temp the next time I use it so I should be able to verify with some degree of accuracy the actual temperature.
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[Bill W. White]

Thanks for response Keith. I called conde and they set up the printer and I did a transfer on a white hardboard and the colors were incredable!!!! David at Conde says he has workrd with corian for many years and is going to call me tomorrow and try and help with some pointers. It's great is it to have a c ompany like Conde and you guys here at SMC to go to for help, it's certainly made the start up easy. Thnaks Bill W.