Black Sublimation Ink looks reddish Brown after Pressed onto Mugs

Buy a new mug press.

Have you tried pressing for five minutes? Also, are your inks expired? With our GK mug press it takes about 5 minutes to press a mug. It sounds like the black ink isn't completely sublimating to the substrate.

Chinese presses usually have the heat pad on the outside of the pad right next to the mug. This will make the pressing faster, however be careful of scorching and hot spots which are very common with this type of machine. These presses are also prone to have controller problems and heat pad malfunction so save up your money to buy a better one when this one gives up as parts are unlikely to be available.
The Sawgrass ink should give you a good black. Might call us and check the settings.
Paper can also be a factor, what type of paper are you using?

We also have an old Chinese mug press that we started with and it presses a mug in about 3.5 minutes. It's several years old and still works well but the "adjusting" screws are bent - the quality of parts on the cheap press is far below the quality of the GK press. That being said, the cheap press is actually easier to use and less likely to cause a flesh burn because of the design. Good design. Crappy materials. Can't someone put the two together and have a good design with good materials? The paper is a good question - Ink Soup Jim knows what he's talking about and can probably help a lot.

Too long of a press time and too much heat. You are overcooking the ink.
Had the same issue, lowered the time and temps slightly, now the blacks are really dark.

DKgrafix said:

Too long of a press time and too much heat. You are overcooking the ink.
Had the same issue, lowered the time and temps slightly, now the blacks are really dark.

Click to expand...

Totally agree. Was doing mugs with black only lettering and logo when I got called away. Even though I was standing in the next room I didn't hear the beep to tell me the mug was done. When I got back to it the black had all come out brick brown. I'd vary the time first and then temperature settings separately until you get good results.

I'm trying to press a darker brown logo on a mug, when I take it out of press when timer goes off it's the perfect color. As it cools it gets darker and darker and looks black. I have tried adjusting pressure, time and temperature and I can't figure out why its doing this.

Try dunking the mug in warm water after pressing.

You need to reduce the temperature to stop the sub ink from developing further. Get it below 320f/160c as quikly as possible by dunking into warm/hand hot water. Don't put it straight into cold water as this can cause the ceramic to crack, weakening the mug.