Drinkware print
Sublimation Mug and Tumbler Kit
Two presses, a dedicated A4 printer setup and a first carton of blanks, for printing personalised mugs and tumblers from a spare room, a market gazebo or a school tuck-shop corner.
What comes in the box
Personalised mugs and tumblers sell all year in South Africa, then go mad from late October into December when year-end functions, matric farewells and corporate gifting all land at once. This pick puts together the kit a one or two person bench needs to take those orders without hunting for parts. Everything is chosen to run off normal 230 V plug points in a garage or small unit.
- Clamshell mug press with a silicone cradle for 11oz and 15oz straight mugs
- Tumbler press with a 20oz skinny element and a spare 30oz element
- A4 inkjet printer set up for sublimation, with a four colour sublimation ink set
- 200 sheets of A4 sublimation paper in a resealable bag
- Two rolls of 10 mm heat-resistant tape and a pair of heat-resistant gloves
- Starter blanks: 36 white 11oz coated mugs and 12 white 20oz stainless skinny tumblers
- Infrared thermometer for checking the cradle before the first press of the day
Starting settings we give every buyer
These are the numbers our team tapes inside the lid of every kit. Presses vary a little, so treat them as a starting point and test on a reject blank first.
| 11oz white mug | 185 °C, 160 to 180 seconds, medium pressure |
|---|---|
| 15oz white mug | 185 °C, 200 to 220 seconds |
| 20oz skinny tumbler | 180 to 190 °C, 120 to 150 seconds, check the seam |
| Mug press power | About 400 W on a standard plug point |
| Tumbler press power | About 600 W |
| Bench space | About 1.2 m of bench for both presses, printer and a cooling tray |
Mugs that come out pale usually means the press ran cool or the paper picked up damp. Mugs with blurred edges was normally left too long, or the paper shifted because the tape was too loose.
Who this kit suits
Side-hustle printers who already do a few shirts at night can add drinkware without learning a new trade, and the side hustle print station playbook shows how it fits around a day job. Market traders use it for on-the-spot name mugs, see the market trader station for the power and gazebo side of it. Schools use the kit for fundraiser mugs and farewell gifts, and small corporate gifting outfits run it hard from November.
Sublimation only works on polyester and coated blanks. If most of your orders are cotton T-shirts, the DTF Garment Kit is the better first buy, and this kit can come later. If you plan to post orders out, pair it with the Pack and Ship Kit so mugs travel in proper dividers.
Delivery, lead times and refills
Kits are packed at our Sunnyrock counter in Germiston. Gauteng orders usually arrive 2 to 3 working days after you confirm, Durban, Cape Town and Gqeberha 3 to 5 working days, and smaller towns 5 to 7 working days by courier. Mugs travel in divider cartons. If a carton arrives damaged, photograph it before you sign and send the photos through our contact form the same day.
Refill blanks come in cartons of 36 mugs or 25 tumblers, and paper in packs of 100 sheets. Most buyers reorder blanks every two to three weeks in the December rush.
Care rhythm that keeps colours honest
- Run a printer nozzle check at least twice a week. Sublimation ink dries in the heads if the printer sits idle for long.
- Keep paper sealed in its bag. In Durban or Cape Town winter damp, paper left open overnight prints dull and can ghost.
- Wipe the silicone cradle with a dry cloth once it has cooled, and check the element wire at the hinge every month.
- Let mugs cool on a rack, not stacked, so the print does not mark the next mug.
The humidity press card covers the coastal side of this in more detail.
Questions buyers ask
Can I sublimate onto cotton T-shirts?
No. Sublimation ink bonds with polyester and with polymer-coated blanks, so it works on coated mugs, coated tumblers and light polyester fabric. For cotton shirts look at the DTF Garment Kit instead.
Do I need a dedicated printer?
Yes. The printer runs sublimation ink only. Once it has had sublimation ink through the heads it should never go back to normal ink, so keep it as its own machine.
Will the presses run on an inverter during load-shedding?
The mug press draws roughly 400 W and the tumbler press roughly 600 W, so one press at a time is comfortable on a 1.5 kVA inverter. Don't start a new cycle in the last ten minutes before a scheduled outage, a press that cools mid-cycle gives patchy colour.
How many mugs can one person do in an hour?
With designs printed ahead, one press does about 12 to 15 mugs an hour including taping, pressing and cooling. Running both presses side by side gets a practised operator to roughly 25 pieces an hour.
What is the lead time?
Kits are packed in Sunnyrock. Gauteng deliveries usually land 2 to 3 working days after you confirm, Durban, Cape Town and Gqeberha 3 to 5 working days, and outlying towns 5 to 7 working days by courier.
What our Starter Kit customers say
Verified Google reviews
Ask for this kit through our contact form
Tell us how many mugs or tumblers you expect a week and where you work from. The Sunnyrock team replies with a confirmed kit list and delivery date.