What started as a small makerspace experiment is now becoming a small production system.

The Follow-Up Order

Shortly after publishing my breakdown of producing mugs for a nonprofit that had initially floated the idea of a 200-mug run decided to start with a smaller batch instead.

Forty-eight mugs.

Meanwhile, the original nonprofit requested twelve more mugs after seeing the first batch.

The next production run looks like this:

• 48 mugs for one organization
• 12 mugs for the original fundraiser

60 mugs total.

Still manageable.

But far beyond what makes sense to produce in a two-hour weekly makerspace reservation.

The earlier spreadsheet exercise had already revealed the core constraint:

alignment and preparation time dominate small-batch production.

If I were to do this again, the workflow would need to change.

The Makerspace Was Perfect — Until It Wasn’t

The library makerspace is excellent for prototyping.

It gave me access to equipment and space to test the process without investing in hardware upfront. That’s exactly what makerspaces are designed for.

But once production volume increases, the environment introduces friction:

• reservation limits
• shared equipment
• setup and teardown time
• transporting materials

Those overhead costs disappear when production happens in one location.

So I made a decision.

Bring everything in-house.

Close to the Estimate

Before placing the order, I built a quick estimate for what it would cost to bring mug production in-house.

My spreadsheet projected $550.10 including tax.

The final purchase came to $556.

That’s only $5.90 higher than expected, which is close enough that the estimate effectively did its job.

There was one small discrepancy I noticed afterward. In my spreadsheet, the tape dispenser was listed $1.49 cheaper than the product I actually purchased. I may have written down the wrong ASIN while building the estimate.

Either way, the overall projection held remarkably well.

In fact, I initially saved $10 on the printer, but then realized I needed silicone baking mats so freshly pressed mugs could cool safely without damaging surfaces. Those came to $9.44.

Small details, but they reinforce an important point: when the system is modeled carefully, reality tends to land very close to the plan.

The Spreadsheet That Started It All

None of this equipment was purchased blindly.

Last week, while working out pricing for the first batch of mugs, I built a spreadsheet to model the entire production process.

It accounted for:

• material costs
• electricity usage
• machine wear
• labor time

But I also designed it to be flexible.

Using simple checkboxes, I could change different configuration options to see how they affected pricing and supply needs. For example, I could toggle between:

• mugs with individual boxes
• mugs without packaging
• mugs paired with separate window display boxes

Each option automatically recalculated the per-mug cost.

The spreadsheet also allowed me to change the number of mugs in a production run, and it would calculate how many supplies I needed to purchase — paper, tape, mugs, boxes, and other consumables.

Then I added one more feature that proved particularly useful.

The sheet lets me record materials already on hand.

Instead of simply telling me what a full batch requires, it calculates what materials remain in inventory and determines only what needs to be purchased to complete the next run.

That makes the spreadsheet reusable.

Each new batch becomes a simple exercise:

1. Enter how many mugs I plan to produce
2. Enter what materials I already have
3. The spreadsheet calculates what needs to be purchased

It started as a quick pricing tool.

But it’s slowly becoming a small production planning system.

Everything Is Now In-House

With the equipment arriving this week, the workflow changes dramatically.

Previously, production depended on reserving time at the library makerspace. That worked well for experimentation, but it introduced scheduling constraints that don’t scale well once orders begin to grow.

Now the entire process can happen at home.

Designing, printing transfers, preparing mugs, pressing, cooling, and packaging can all be staged independently rather than squeezed into a single reservation window.

The tools arriving this week provide everything needed to run the full process:

• sublimation printer
• mug heat press
• sublimation ink and paper
• heat tape and dispenser
• alignment tools
• cooling mats
• heat-resistant gloves

The system is now self-contained.

A Budget-Friendly Sublimation Setup

One of the reasons I chose the EcoTank printer is cost.

Most dedicated sublimation printers start around $400 or more for entry-level models. Those machines come ready to print with sublimation ink and color profiles already configured.

The Epson EcoTank ET-2800, on the other hand, is simply an inkjet printer with refillable tanks. It’s designed to use bottled ink rather than expensive cartridges.

But there’s a small trick the sublimation community has adopted.

Instead of filling the printer with Epson’s standard ink, you fill the tanks with sublimation ink from the beginning and never introduce the normal ink at all. Because the printer has never used standard ink, it effectively becomes a sublimation printer.

Same hardware.

Different ink.

The result is a functional sublimation printer at a much lower starting cost.

There are a few trade-offs compared to purpose-built sublimation machines. Dedicated printers come with manufacturer color profiles and require almost no setup. Converting an ink tank printer means spending a little time configuring things manually.

Fortunately, the steps are fairly simple.

Typical setup adjustments include:

• filling the tanks only with sublimation ink
• running the printer’s initial ink charge
• printing a nozzle test to verify clean ink flow
• disabling high-speed printing for better color consistency
• selecting Premium Presentation Paper Matte in the printer driver to allow heavier ink output

After that initial setup, the printer behaves much like any other sublimation system.

The conversion process adds a few minutes of configuration, but the savings compared to a dedicated sublimation printer can be significant.

For small production runs and experimentation, it’s a very practical starting point.

One More Batch for the First Nonprofit

Along with the larger order, I purchased an additional 12 mugs for the original organization:

The Apple Valley Shrine Club.

The first batch sold so quickly that it raised an interesting question.

Was twelve enough?

Sometimes early demand is simply curiosity.

Other times it’s a signal.

I’ll find out soon enough.

Reducing Labor

Once everything arrives and the system is set up, the next focus will be reducing labor time.

Labor was the single largest cost component in the earlier spreadsheet model. If I can reduce the time it takes to place an image on a mug, the per-mug cost drops immediately. Lower labor time means lower prices while maintaining the same quality.

Some of the new tools were purchased specifically with that goal in mind.

A pre-cut tape dispenser should make it faster to secure transfer sheets without constantly cutting new pieces of tape. A tumbler cradle will stabilize mugs during alignment so both hands can focus on positioning the artwork accurately.

These are small workflow improvements, but small improvements add up when repeated dozens or hundreds of times.

The next production run will reveal where the real time savings appear — and where the next improvements might come from.

Small Production, Not Manufacturing

Sixty mugs isn’t an industrial run.

But it’s enough volume to expose operational questions:

• How quickly can alignment be performed?
• What steps create the most friction?
• Can jigs reduce preparation time?
• How much time does packaging actually add?

Those answers will show up during the next production cycle.

And they’ll feed right back into the spreadsheet.

Sometimes the Only Way to Learn

A few weeks ago, I was scheduling two-hour makerspace sessions to produce twelve mugs.

Now there’s a printer arriving on Saturday and a heat press arriving Monday.

Sometimes the only way to understand a system is to build it.