No Longer Member Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 We are looking into the possibility of buying a ceramic decal printing system or possibly converting an existing printer over to ceramic decals. I've search around here and elsewhere but really can't find anything firm on supplies and information in the US other than a $8000 system which seems pretty high for a $1500 printer. I have a few questions: Where can I buy just the supplies; preferably in the US? Has anyone here converted a standard printer? Is anyone here printing their own decals? What is the latest books covering this technology? I know NOTHING about printers. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High Bridge Pottery Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 Some black and white laser printers can print decals as the toner contains 50%~ iron oxide. Only get the brown of iron but it is a lot cheaper. Possibly a way to make different coloured toners somehow but I have not found any tutorials. Not sure if there is inkjet decal or if ceramic decals are different or how that process works really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glazenerd Posted June 8, 2016 Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 Contact Kruger Pottery Supply in St. Louis. Ryan prints black and white, and colored decals. I have seen some of his samples, and some strike me as being on the intricate side. http://kruegerpottery.com/ Not an area I am overly familiar with, so I cannot offer any direction. Nerd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mug Posted June 8, 2016 Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 If I remember correctly what your paying for is a patented process and there are only a couple of company's who sell the full color laser printers for ceramic decals. There are a couple of questionable suppliers from Asia that claim to have usable toner and you probably will not find the supplies sold cheap in the US. I'm pretty sure that the $1,500 printer has to be slightly modified to work properly. The first question that I asked myself was not the price, but how and what I would have to do to justify and pay off the machine. My answer was that the machine would have to be used practically every day and it would certainly pay for itself. I personally do not want to dedicate that much time to marketing and selling one process. It would be more cost effective as a business to farm out the custom decals to someone who knows what they are doing. Possibly negotiate a better wholesale price based on my volume with the printer. I can mark up my decal work to cover the printing cost. The only down side is a few days wait for delivery. Laser printing is specifically geared toward one off prints or extremely short runs because screen printing decals still wins when a larger quantity or a special color like platinum is needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted June 8, 2016 Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 Definitely check out the cost of having them printed for you. Depending on the volume you need, it may be more cost and time effective to not do them in house. The price per decal can be quite low when buying in quantity, and you won't have to deal with the maintenance and upkeep of the machine, and the time it will take to learn how to use it and get everything to work properly. A good resource: http://rothshank.com/justins-work/decal-resources/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No Longer Member Posted June 10, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 I watched Justins video; very informative and well done. Paper is on the way an we thing we may already have a printer that will work. I agree, it costs too much for what it is and how much you would have to do to cover the cost. You would think they would wise up and sell supplies to people who could convert their own printer. They are doing it backwards and going about it all wrong; all the juice is in the supplies. The printer is just the delivery system and should be marketed cheap. Otherwise folks like me are gonna pass and they are gonna miss out on MILLIONS in print supply sales. We once did production work for a company that made oil lamps. They lost money on the lamps and knew it but made a KILLING on the oil. If folks aint got it...they can't use it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugaboo Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 Dirt poor - if you have any questions on using the laser transfer paper give me a buzz I've used probably a 1000 sheets of it by now and am looking to order more. There are all kinds of things you can do to get excellent results. T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perkolator Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 I'm looking into getting the Enduring Images decal printer for our studio. Yes it's expensive at around $8k for schools but there aren't many options for DIY approach to color decal printing. Faculty want it since we don't really have any "modern tech" equipment in our studio. I think it will be a good investment since this type of tech will easily pair with the aesthetics of the current 20 year old student population. I suppose I'll have to update if we magically get approved for funds and buy one FYI - Consumables pricing supposedly works out to being around $0.06/sq inch of printed surface at 80:20 color saturation. Not too bad IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 I think that's the model that Mariko Paterson uses. She uses it a lot in her own work, and will make custom decals for artists wanting small-medium runs. Her website is www.foragestudios.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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