New machine's first result

These are the first results of my new machine:



Overall,it's OK. Ink thickness is fairly stable.

Problems: Ink bleed is too broad, ink thickness is too deep. The heating time and/or temperature is too much, I suppose.

I got a 3D dye-sub machine

I got a 3D dye-sub machine.



Printing tray:



The CD is as a size guide.

The silicone sheet has a bump. It is good for iPhone case, but may cause some trouble for me...



And this is my new keycap mount's mask.



I'll make new keycap mounts from now on.

New Small 3D Sublimation Machine

My vacuum cleaner overheats while printing recently. I'm leaning toward buying 3D sublimation machine... And I've found a new small machine.



ST1520

Printing area 150x200x20 mm looks promising. But in my eyes, the machine is too small for the area. Hmm... OK I'll buy and test it.

Windowed Key

Now I'm working on Keycool 87's blank keycaps.
The keycap set contains some windowed key. Is the window printable?



The answer is yes, but hard to see.

Today's failure

Dye keycap's sides!


The surface is noticeably nonuniform and the black's thickness is noticeably deeper than top... Dye-sub process doesn't make perfectly saturated color, I suppose.

Black background

I tried to dye the sides of keycaps by some ways. Coating is not good, I suppose. Coated surface is completely different from dyed surface.

My result:


I've abandoned. Dye-sub is the only way. Black background will cost astonishingly high...

Better contact

I bought a new vacuum cleaner:)



I made a silicone sheet jig. The silicone sheet sometimes wimples while heating because it gets longer by heat. This jig gives a little tension which avoids wimpling.


I got perfectly saturated consistent black! For money savings, most of these caps are already printed test chart. Blank keycaps are expensive in my budget.


Printed on blank keycaps:

Perfectly saturated consistent black. I've gained some confidence with my method.

But I've found printing misalignment. I feel my keycap mount is not stable enough. In principle, plaster is highly stable. Aging is required? I went wrong while alignment? Anyhow, I have a plan to make new design keycap mount.