What Sublimation Flasks Can Bring To A Big Occasion
With the large variety of sublimation drinkware available, it’s no surprise that hip flasks are also included. Being typically built with stainless steel in silver or white, applying colorful transfers to them will have similar results to that of skinny tumblers and aluminum photo panels. Let’s show how one can be customized as a special wedding gift for bachelors and other groomsmen, using the Sawgrass SG500 printer and HPN Signature Pro multifunction heat press.
Before getting started however, you’ll first need to measure your flask to determine how big or small your graphic should be. Once done, you can start preparing your graphic within your measured size.
Depending on what your wedding client has available, it’s best to ask them for any prior pictures of them with their partner, or any existing assets used to promote the event like logos or fonts. Then you may start piecing together your graphic with what you’ve gathered. We’ll be applying a trimmed photo of our wedding couple with cursive text below for our flask’s front side.
Once your graphics are ready, print them through your sublimation printer. Sawgrass users will send it to Sawgrass Print Manager with these settings: Substrate to Stainless Steel Tumbler or Metal, Paper to your paper’s profile, leave Mirror checked, and change the Color Mode in the Color tab to Photographic or Vivid depending on your graphic’s color saturation. Once set, you may click Print.
After your transfer’s been printed, trim the graphic out by its edges, place it facing towards the flask, then attach it together with heat tape.
Unless you’ve already done so, replace the heating element and lower platen of your machine with a flask attachment. HPN Signature Pro 12-in-1 multifunction machines include a 2-piece flask attachment. The attachment is also available separately, and ready for Signature Series multifunction heat presses with the same install process.
Close the machine and start loosening the hand screws on both the heating element and lower platen. Disconnect the element’s cable, then carefully lift the leverage handle up and remove each piece out. Place both pieces of the flask attachment to their spots, close the handle down to the top attachment’s screw pieces, then tightly fasten the hand screws back to both attachments.
With the flask attachment installed to the machine, this is a good time to test press the flask to fine tune it-to medium pressure. Once you’ve found pressure, take your flask out and turn on your heat press to 60 to 90 seconds at 365 degrees Fahrenheit. We recommend checking the official press settings for less common sublimation blanks, though we’ve found these settings to be safe for many stainless steel blanks. But as soon as your machine reaches temperature, you may place the flask back in to press it. When your machine reaches time, open it and allow the transfer to cool down for at least 30 seconds.
Afterwards, wear heat resistant gloves to handle the flask in quickly peeling the transfer out. It’s front side has now been sublimated with your wedding graphic!
These flasks can serve as a stylish, warm reminder of what the groomsmen are celebrating during and succeeding the afterparty. And with the flask attachment installed to your multifunction machine, you’ll be ready to press multiple flasks for other groomsmen in no time.
You can learn about sublimation and more through our YouTube channel, contact us at support.heatpressnation.com
