The Best Metal Print Setup

If you’re looking to get into metal printing, you might be overwhelmed. You watch some videos, search for “sublimation supplies”, and get taken to an online supplier with more products than you can count. We’ve all been there. It can be challenging in the beginning to figure out the right things to buy. It’s not like a printer or heat press is cheap, so you want to be careful not to waste money.

I’ve been making metal prints for a few years now, and every day I get asked, “What’s your setup?” So I’m going to give you a rundown on everything I use, along with items that i would recommend starting with. You do not need these exact items, but it helps make the process much easier.

This is probably the best printer I have ever used. I’ve had many printers over the past few years, and all of them have had different issues. One of the biggest problems with printers is letting them sit. IF you let a printer sit for too long, the print heads will start to dry out. This causes printing issues, and if this happens, you either need to do a print head cleaning or, worse, replace the heads.

I can’t tell you how many times I left this printer sitting for 7-10 days without running it at all while I was away, and then came back home and had no issues. Now I dont recommend this, but it's nice to know you do not need to run it every day like the larger printers.

You also want to buy a piece of equipment you’ll have for a long time. I’ve had mine for over 2 years, printed thousands of pictures, and had no issues. I know I sound like an Epson salesman, but I just genuinely like their product and will buy another.

I want to start by saying this is not the Heat Press I currently use. HPN was the first heat press I ever purchased when I started, and it was great. I currently use a Kilo 24”x32” heat press, but I do not recommend it for beginners. It’s large, more expensive, and draws too much power, which is the biggest issue for most people.

Since you’re probably new to this, I believe you should start with a 16”×20” press because it allows you to plug into most regular outlets, and it makes tons of different-sized prints.

I’ve chosen this press over others because of its quality. When you buy a cheaper heat press, you take the chance of it not heating evenly. When this happens, your metal prints will have an issue with the image transferring. Some spots can end up burnt, while other spots didn’t get enough heat. This will ruin your prints and your mood. It’s best to avoid them.

I don’t care what level you’re at in metal printing; these are the best bang for your buck if you’re not a high-end print shop. I have no affiliation with this company, but there are 2 reasons I like them. One, they are much less expensive than Chromaluxe, but 90% of the quality. Second, they are usually in stock and ship within the U.S. and Canada, which is very helpful because stocking lots of inventory can be very expensive for us, smaller businesses.

When I started printing, an old supplier used to have their own brand of sublimation paper. I loved it, and I loved the price. Sadly, that business discontinued it before being bought out.

Once this happened, I started to test many different papers, most of which I hated. Then I found this SubliPro paper. It was a fair price, and I ended up really loving the product.

It’s a 120 GSM, fast-drying sublimation paper. I like it because it’s thicker, it holds more ink, and gives me a good quality print. Thin, cheap paper feels very wet and starts to wrinkle from the ink moisture, which can cause issues in your final print quality.

I’m going to be honest, I haven’t used these yet. The metal frames that I normally use are from China (click here), and are difficult to get, very expensive, and poorly cut (just being honest).

Chomaluxe recently came out with these. They are fairly priced and much easier to get in the U.S. If the quality is anything like their metal blanks, then they will be amazing. I plan to use them in the near future, and I’m only recommending them because I do not have any other place that sells frames currently. If you know of a place, please email me!

Something I’ve noticed with the stock 3M tape that comes with all of Chromalux’s products is that it’s very sticky, but too thin. The issue with sticking hard products to the back of aluminum is that there’s no forgiveness.

When I started selling metal prints, I used the stock tape. I thought it was good. Then, a few months later, a handful of customers started emailing me saying, “My print fell off the wall,” and they would proceed to tell me the adhesive came apart.

So I searched around, knowing I needed a thicker tape. I noticed other print shops using 3M Foam tape, so I gave it a try. It’s been amazing so far. Good luck pulling a frame off the back of a print after it’s stuck together with this tape.

I dont have much to say about this tape, but you do need it for when you are heat pressing. This holds the picture in place so it cannot slide around when it’s hot. If that happens, your image will become distorted, and you will have to remake it.

This tape is meant for high temperatures. It doesn’t melt inside the 400-degree heat press as regular tape would. This stuff also lasts forever. A 2-pack will probably last you a year.

If you want to keep learning, I send the Sublimation Daily newsletter every Monday and Thursday with tips, techniques, and anything I find interesting, completely free.

(Pro tip: Add the newsletter to your primary inbox folder so it doesn't disappear into spam.)

If you want everything faster, I wrote The Metal Print Handbook that shares my exact settings, workflow, how to build your business, and more. I think you will find it very helpful.

My Metal Print Community