CLTT..need some input

[Mike Null]

Use them as a starting point. But do use the pads as recommended. A word to the wise--always check your transfers before printing for dirt and voids then check the transfer paper after the job is done to be sure there is no toner left on it. If there is toner then you have a defective item.

I peel most hard stuff cold.

The residue I get still comes off quite easily with dna. Post baking will prove worthwhile. As I mentioned before I use a heat gun rather than an oven.

[Rodne Gold]

Just as a matter of interest , what are your yields in terms of toner carts , the printer blurb says 2000 pages black with 5% coverage and 2000 pages colour with 5% coverage...evidently these are the "starter" carts that come with the printer... the 6000 page toner carts (at 5%) are hellishly expensive , a full set costs more then the printer (round $200 per colour) The total cost for 4 carts is close to $800
Lets say , I get the 6000 page carts , could I realistically work on 1500 pages for general CLTT work
IE round 60c a page assuming a full set is $800 ..is that reasonable as an assumption?

[Dan Hintz]

Can't answer that exact question, but it's often a lot cheaper to just repurchase the printer than get replacement cartridges... it's a landfill waste, but it's cheaper than purchasing replacement toner, fusers, etc. You could also use the older one as a laminating machine

[Martin Boekers]

Just as a matter of interest , what are your yields in terms of toner carts , the printer blurb says 2000 pages black with 5% coverage and 2000 pages colour with 5% coverage...evidently these are the "starter" carts that come with the printer... the 6000 page toner carts (at 5%) are hellishly expensive , a full set costs more then the printer (round $200 per colour) The total cost for 4 carts is close to $800
Lets say , I get the 6000 page carts , could I realistically work on 1500 pages for general CLTT work
IE round 60c a page assuming a full set is $800 ..is that reasonable as an assumption?

Some laser printer sites have a picture that show how much is used, that way you can tell a bit easier, being a photographer, I used to print calenders and I opted
for a lease and a per print price. I believe the cost was $.07 for B&W and $.23 for color per sheet. I wanted to do this then I know my printed cost so I could control
a fixed cost per calander. The company new that at the time I leased it and said my usage would be fine, 6 months later they cancelled the contract..... Said I need adigital press!!!

Yes toner cartidges are expensive, esp hi capacity ones, quite a bit cheaper than ink jet though.. Still a good area for mark up on your work. Dye Sub 110ml cost about $110.00
With toner if your a small business you can use the same printer for generic work flow, so the only additional expense is a press and transfer paper. Pretty cheap to open up a new market!

[Rodne Gold]

Ta Martin , I don't have the option to lease etc here , I might use the unit to do certificates , we use a pretty expensive (in inks) canon photo printer
I wanted to work out costs per A4 sheet , currently paper here is round $1.35 and my calc on printing costs is $0.60 = total cost of $2 and I would round up to $2.50 including wasteage etc.
Apart from the item you are CLTTing , I would probably charge at least $10-$15 to do the CLTTing... does that sound like a reasonable price or is it OTT?

[Martin Boekers]

Rodne, if you plan on doing a lot of certificates it may be cheaper to design then have the basic stuff printed and add the text or personalization in your shop.

Pricing? you know your market better than us are you just saying $10-$15 for the transfer and pricing the substrate extra? Sounds about right.

I don't sell many certificates, but I offer them (no metallics on text) I have laser printed to metallic card stock, looks decent. A standard Cert with holder I charge
$15-$25 depending upon design time and if the want a transfer to the cover.

[Mike Null]

Rodney

Don't know if this has been mentioned before but if I were looking for a new printer I'd probably buy an OKI 711WT for it's ability to print white. I understand MT has drivers for this machine.

[Richard Rumancik]

Mike, have you seen what the black and greys looks like? Although theory says that mixing cyan, yellow, and magenta will give you black, I wonder how it actually looks. In the printing business if you do that, you can end up with a muddy looking black. Maybe with CLTT there is enough "mixing" due to the heat that it will actually look black. (This machine would have to be pretty much dedicated for CLTT, as it would not really be suitable for printing on regular paper stock.) It is a good feature, however, when you really have to have white in the graphic.

[Mike Null]

Richard

I haven't seen that machine in operation --only read a few comments by other engravers. On mine the cmyk black is dense black rather than the gray as the comparison shows on the Corel cmyk and rgb palettes.

BTW--if you want to send me a piece of copper and a file I'll print a circuit board for you to try.

[Rodne Gold]

The 711 that prints white is something like $5000 here (seen it at $3500 and a lot more in the US) price of white toner in the US is $550.....erk!!!!
The CLTT process using wht is also a kludge of sorts , you got to print and lay down the white first and then print the colour atop it , 2 papers , 2 heat transfers.
Edit: I see TMT GB has it for 2000 quid and a wht cart is 260 quid or so..a bit more reasonable...but still steep...
http://www.themagictouch.co.uk/acata...r-Printer.html

[Martin Boekers]

MT does have a material with a white base for pressing to the reverse side of clear acrylic, its ok, not real saturated colors as UV printers, but it does has it's uses.

I believe it's called ORD.

[George Brown]

Have you seen this?

http://www.dyetrans.com/transfer-pap...transfer_paper
http://www.dyetrans.com/detail.php?i...transfer_paper

Price not too bad, and looks fairly simple.

[Martin Boekers]

Have you seen this?

http://www.dyetrans.com/transfer-pap...transfer_paper
http://www.dyetrans.com/detail.php?i...transfer_paper

Price not too bad, and looks fairly simple.

MT has a similar product called WOW, Seen at a show a few years back.

I was just on MT site and saw a newer product, OBM, but you need a cutter for a profile trim.
A bit more expensive than the injet vinyl I use now, plus I get nervous running things like this through a laser printer......

[Rodne Gold]

An update.

We got our printer and press etc , and I was MAJORLY annoyed , the printer was playing up from the first print , unfused black toner everywhere , paper wrappong round the fuser drum. We spent 2 days cleaning and trying to get it right.

We phoned the agent as its under warrantee (3 yrs) , and they sent us to their official repair facility (Who happens to be owned by my cousin)
It turned out we hadn't removed a transport clip on the fuser unit ..not well documented in the manual but it was shown...anyway he told my guys he was gonna send us an invoice for "stupidity"

So far we have tried CPM and ORD on these materials: Gold and silver matt anodised aluminium , brass , mirror finish anacoil, 0.8mm and 1.5mm rowmark type materials , 3 , 5 and 8mm clear acrylic , white acrylic , stainless steel and wood.

Results are VERY good ,Colours come out really vibrant and detial is impressive.
A few "mishaps" as we find the right temps , dwell time and pressures for the various substrates (incomplete transfers mostly) , we are using the same press as TMT does , same printer etc , but are finding their posted times/temps etc in the videos are not what we need.
We still have to try etching using the toner as a resist and try foiling atop the resist.

Durability without post baking is poor , easily scratched off with a fingernail however most of what we are going to do will never be handled .
I took the advice here and am using a heat gun for post baking , we tried the press as a post bake , but it wasn't as effective. Post baking makes it MUCH more durable , but I would be hesitiant to use CLTT for something like an uncoated keytag which will be handled a lot.
Doming works very well with no bleed etc , once an item is domed , obviously the durability is not an issue.

NO significant warping problems with any of the materials when doing the CLTT , the 0.8mm (1/32") Chines rowmark type materials did come out with a very slight warp , but this is understandable.
We make a lot of 20mm thick "slab" awards , and albeit the press says you can use 25mm thick stuff in it , my workshop manager says it won't close properly , but maybe he means the handle wont snap into locked position , maybe we just have to press down and hold it manually...will investigate later today.

I can see a lot of potential with this machine , bearing in mind all the other machines and processes we have.

[Tim Bateson]

...but I would be hesitiant to use CLTT for something like an uncoated keytag which will be handled a lot...

Mine have held up very well. No worse than those that are anodized.