printing on metal

I did a search and found nothing new so here goes....

 

I recently took some photos that seem popular and i have a few individuals who would like to have it printed on metal.

 

Does anyone print on metal at home? either with heat press or other forms of transfer? if you do.... did it go well and would you recommend it?

 

or do you send out for prints on metal and if you do where do you go that allows you to sell them at a fair price and profit?

 

thank you for your thoughts

 

David

Check out Costco if you are in the U.S.

I'd be confident about silkscreening on metal, even at home, although I am not sure how to make a screened film to copy my screens from. - FTR: I know that there are dedicated film writers.and herd about process cameras. - I simply don't want to invest that much into my prepress tech, so outsourcing might be the key here.

I would not want to have a Mimaki UV inkjet at home. The one at work is way too noisy and annoying for my personal taste. - I haven't tested the durability of it's printing on metal.

Most of the metal prints are made using a dye sublimation process with specially coated aluminum sheets and a heat press. Printers with sublimation inks are used to print the image on the transfer medium paper. Probably not something you'd do at home.

 

Breathing Color has a metal print medium to use with a regular pigment ink printer. See link below.

 

Allure Fine Art Metal

There are professional companies out there who do this properly, who have the equipment and who have gone through the practice to become really good at it. There's no reason to reinvent the wheel. I recommend Bay Photo, Millers, or MpixPro. A "fair price and profit" is always relative, and the profit you make is up to you.