dyesub press retrofit

For discussions related to designing and making ski/snowboard-building equipment, such as presses, core profilers, edge benders, etc.

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hugocacola
Posts: 191
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:00 am

Post by hugocacola »

Hey

You must contact Carruesco At ISO .. F.Carruesco@isosport.com

and you should contact ths person from LAES from Italy, they have a good Top SHeet for a very reasonable price comparing with iso... laesnpi@la-es.com

Good Luck
strangesnowboarding
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Post by strangesnowboarding »

sublimating onto polyester fabrics is the jam! we will be doing real athletic/shredwear with our board graphics on them.
no more cotton t's!!
also we solved the topsheet problem (for the moment) sublimating onto 100%polyester microfiber fabric that goes under a clear topsheet.

about to drop some serious coin on the real stuff from isosport but the shipping puts us into the summer, too late for this seasons graphics.
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chrismp
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Post by chrismp »

yay for t-shirts!
so the polyester fabric bonds well?
strangesnowboarding
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Post by strangesnowboarding »

well shittt.....
Image
gangsta by strangesnowboarding, on Flickr

so after testing every possible option we still can not get the printer to spit out a whole graphic. it stops around 53in long every time, we have tried different graphics, different computers, different drivers. finally with a couple calls into sawgrass we discovered that their driver (powerdriver) simply can not handle the image size/complexity of our graphics in order to print the full 70in print.
we will be working on how to scale down/resize images so that we can print without tiling the images.

we used the standard epson driver and got a full print but the colors were really off (as i knew would happen). we are now testing with a RIP (multirip) to see if it can handle the print size/complexity.

I know that people are getting the full prints with the sawgrass driver so any help would be appreciated. what PPI settings are you using? how large are your files? who else is using rips to print and which ones will be worth the cash? how complex are your images (full color or just a few gradients?) computers frustrate me especially when im so close to getting it right.

otherwise everyone is stoked, more and more art is getting done and submitted to our office every day, and we are actually getting to put them on snowboards. we have ordered a small quantity of PBT from lindsay (action sports tec) to test on prior to the huge order from iso.
i will post some more pics once we have the topsheet in house and or can print the whole damn snowboard.

Image
nightmare shredwear by strangesnowboarding, on Flickr
heres the new hotness, and a reason to use all the half prints that we have been forced to mess with.
strangesnowboarding
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Post by strangesnowboarding »

in good fashion we got it figured out after i posted this morning. doh.
our programmer buddy came over and worked out some kinks with the MULTIRIP program, installed some new PDF readers, flexed fingers and the printer spat out the whole graphic.

conclusions: the sawgrass driver (commercial versions at least) will not support complex colored files of any size (or PPI setting) you need a RIP and some other magic to get snowboard size graphics. the powerdriver is meant for at most tshirt size full color images, or large areas that are only one color number.

live and learn. one step closer.
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Brazen
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Post by Brazen »

Weird. I just use the Sawgrass drivers and have no problems with high-res full color full-size graphics. Everyday. I guess I just got lucky.
"86% of the time it works 100% of the time".
strangesnowboarding
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Post by strangesnowboarding »

so one month later we have some promising results. i will share some top secret pics (must be my flickrfriend to view them original size)

Image
r.mccoy2 by strangesnowboarding, on Flickr
rmccoy promodel (this one is a snowboard now!)
http://heavyshred.blogspot.com/2011/04/sneakpeak.html

Image
catsanddogs by strangesnowboarding, on Flickr

Image
catsanddogs2 by strangesnowboarding, on Flickr
cats and dogs! the colors are off on this one but it still looks rad. too much red....
we have one more but i better not post it here with kids around.

these were all done by artists that we commissioned to do work and i am really impressed with the results. the PBT topsheet and print make the snowboard look like a legitimate product standing next to other brands.

couple questions/concerns/learning curve stuff i will share:

how much dye is everyone getting into the PBT? ie. how light is the transfer paper? there is still a good amount of dye on mine, to the point where we can sublimate twice without that much loss of clarity. we are not exploring this to do 2topsheets but rather to use the topsheet transfer again onto a tshirt/underaromor/something.
has anyone experienced "resublimation" when you press the board? my contact paper was dyed faintly after we pealed it off of the board.
our temps and times and pressures:
375F, 2min, high pressure
temp is the most important variable, higher temps lead to faster times (2 minutes) and less shrink (3%).
pressure is the most important constant, get it right and keep it there.

we are still working out the kinks in the press setup but the end is near!
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chrismp
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Post by chrismp »

where's that damn "like" button when you need it?!
awesome work!
Richuk
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Post by Richuk »

Blown away by the graphics!!!

The guy who took briefed me on the process suggested that the transfer paper would look as though you could re-print - but he wasn't an expert. Brazen mentioned 150 ppi recently. I haven't looked into it yet. Mine don't quite look as you describe.

Don't know if this helps - photobucket will re-size:

Image

Not come across re-sublimation, but your aware of ghosting and have added a layer of paper between the transfer paper and the teflon sheet ; )
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falls
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Post by falls »

when I peel the masking tape style adhesive paper off the subbed topsheets from CODA after a heated ski press there is a faint image of the topsheet on the adhesive side of the masking paper. I think this is pretty normal.
I might guess that the hotter you press the more likely this is. I press about 80C

I'm also interested in peoples thoughts of how deep the ink gets into the PBT and whether this is effected by time/temp/pressure. When I ski my skis and they get damaged the white under the graphic comes through pretty quickly and makes the skis look old pretty quick. eg when you scratch the topsheet with the end of your pole
Don't wait up, I'm off to kill Summer....
strangesnowboarding
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Post by strangesnowboarding »

so we started building again after a month or two off, still working but not in snowboard mode.
cleaned the shop, reset all the machines, ordered supplies, got some new hardware 8) , software, graphics, and we are back at it.
we switched the layering on the dyesub press up so that we have thicker aluminum against our heat plate, fixed some microleaks in the hoses, ready to keep working.
put one of the previously sublimated topsheets in a deck and the end result was brilliant. i cant wait to crank out more. they are looking way better with each generation.
for a fullsize pic go thru here--> http://heavyshred.blogspot.com/2011/06/untitled.html

last weekend of riding lifts at the resort! arapaho basin closes on the 19th. all the mountains have snow top to bottom for late summer backcountry camping expeditions.
hugocacola
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Post by hugocacola »

Hi Tom

Can you help me with some info about where do you get the silicone pad for your Sublimation press??? Do you have some stock or do you know where I can get it???

Best regards

Hugo
knightsofnii
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Post by knightsofnii »

yea when you peel the protective tape off the topsheet some graphic will come with it, i've seen that every time with tops subbed from 2-3 different companies.

I also know people are stacking multiple layers and subbing onto 5-10 sheets with one transfer. I dont know the specifics but will find out.

What is that an epson 4800/4880 series? How did you get it going right? I'd love to know the details because I can afford one of these today and really need to get up on printing/sublimating.
Doug
knightsofnii
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Post by knightsofnii »

and if you can get it... ISO Coextruded pbt metalflake... so not only do you get those killer graphics but they're sparkly and pearly too.

If you cant, aside from the standard iso coex, there's Laes coextruded, that's whats on our boards and they're really good, cant tell the difference between them and iso.
Doug
hugocacola
Posts: 191
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:00 am

Post by hugocacola »

hello doug aint searching for pbt, but the silicone sponge used on the press...
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