Color printing to wood

[James Terry]

I have seen various charms, ornaments, dog breed pins and whatnot that are color onto wood. It seems to me that the laser engraver would be well used to cut out these items but I am not versed on the various methods of transferring what appears to be printed output to them. I am curious what you folks could share with me on how to make flat colored knick-knacks onto wood and then various methods for added creativity. For instance, if you do heat transfer polymation of laser printer toner, how do you finish this, do you apply the color before or after cutting it out and so on... I wonder what neat effects could be achieved be using the laser before or after applying the color images.

[Rodne Gold]

I had a flat bed printer - The Busjet that could print on anything a3 size and up to 5" thick. I used my laser to cut wood stuff (thin wood) and then made a perspex jig for the printer and used to print on the wood. problems were that you had to coat the wood with a ink receptive coating and there was no white. You could do the same today with a UV curable printer but they , like the busjet (which was rubbish) aren't cheap.
There are a lot of ways you can do this , coat the wood with a ink receptive coating and sublimate or sublimate without and then laser cut and deal with charred edges , laser cut and screen print , laser cut and pad print , laser cut and then use clear or white self adhesive printed decals (use a print and cut machine for intricate stuff)
Wasnt a particularily profitable excercise tho - you have to market this new service as much as you market your laser cutting and colour on wood isnt anything really new.
If you could buy an a3 or bigger direct to substrate printer for less than 2-3 grand and can use inks that require no coatings and have both white and a metallic silver (to do all metallic colours) and have a UV/fade resistant ink , then you would have a good tool for colouring laser cut stuff.

[James Terry]

I have seen those AnaJet DTG printers that ink right to t-shirts then you put them into the heat press to set. I wonder if a t-shirt heat press might not be a good thing for wood panels?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gjvELpIILI

I also wonder what the laser would do to a previously heat transferred polymation. Seems like it might do some melting and probable shrinking.

[James Terry]

Has anyone explored laser printer dye sublimating? I have to wonder how this stuff works since the laser printer itself gets pretty darn hot. Or perhaps it's a special printer too...

I suppose that an unfinished wood or mdf material would be the best to accept a sublimation.

[Dan Hintz]

James,

You may have better luck Googling for info if you don't use the word Polymation... it's a trademarked term for Magic Touch's heat transfer process, so using it may limit your searches unnecessarily. Just use the term heat transfer.

[Mike Null]

There is a difference between color laser transfer and dye sublimation. Dye sublimation will not work on wood. CLTT will work in varying degrees of quality but keep in mind that the printer does not have a white cartridge so whatever you transfer to will alter the colors of the transfer by it's own coloring and the substrate color will replace white in the final result.

I have been doing CLTT for several years and do not do wood because I don't consider it to be satisfactory.

There is a lot more info on the sign forum on this topic.

[Rodne Gold]

Why was this post moved ?

[Scott Challoner]

Someone posted about water slide decals awhile back. Apparently, you can get the ink to transfer to wood by using turpentine. Check this out.
http://www.lazertran.com/techniques/wooden_boxes.htm

The nice thing is, you don't need a bunch of new equipment.

I think Dee G originally posted about this. Maybe she'll chime in with real experience.

[Dee Gallo]

I do use Lazertran decals on wood. You just print them on a sheet of their decal paper, cut them out to whatever shape you need and put some water on them. After a minute, they slide off the backing. If you apply now, they will NOT be permanent, but will stick okay...you still have to seal with something.

To apply permanently to wood, you let them dry first on a towel. Brush some mineral spirits onto the wood and place the dry decal onto the wet thinner. Smooth it over with the brush to get any air out and wait til dry.

I usually spray with clear lacquer, but you can use poly too, to seal it. The decal will not be completely clear until this step is done. When dry, I finish sand to smooth it out.

It's a nice easy low-tech way to use color on wood.

You can get this stuff for either laser or inkjet... I use the inkjet because I've had both and find the inkjet looks better. I think my laser printer is too hot for this material.

:) dee

[Scott Challoner]

I can't believe Scott remembers I posted about this!

I remembered this but spent 20 minutes looking for my keys today. Go figure.:D

Besides, all of your work is memorable Dee.

[Mike Null]

Rodney

I moved the thread because it was in the engravers forum and should have been here where, besides signs, we cover CLTT and sublimation.

[James Terry]

Here is one example of where I am curious about how it was done. It is a pin that my mom picked up at a dog event some years ago. It is on mdf and the print has a little bit of texture to it that is not from the substrate so I am wondering if it might have been a water slide and it bubbled a little bit as a "texture feature"? The sides are black and the back is unfinished so it looks like the entire front may have been sprayed black before accepting the print. And then I guess it was sprayed with sealer but I'm not an expert in deducing these things just yet.

So how was it done? When was the substrate cut and when was the print applied? And then to the specific question at hand for me; how might I go about duplicating this process myself using my laser engraver and either my color laser printer or inkjet?

http://www.webglider.com/laser/20100717/DSC07223.JPG

http://www.webglider.com/laser/20100717/DSC07218.JPG

[Scott Challoner]

It looks like the print was applied, then sprayed with poly or something and then laser cut. It looks like there is a little melt-back on the print, that's why I'm assuming it was cut after application. I don't know if the texture was on purpose or an accident.

[Dee Gallo]

I can't believe Scott remembers I posted about this!

I remembered this but spent 20 minutes looking for my keys today. Go figure.:D

Besides, all of your work is memorable Dee.

All gratuitous flattery gleefully accepted! Thanks, Scott!

[James Terry]

Do you think that the melt-back suggests that the print was not on paper, but perhaps a heat transfer or maybe a water slide? I guess I have to figure some things out by experimenting, it's just that I dont want to be wasting cash or time right now for things I dont need.

[AL Ursich]

Thanks Dee for the tip on the decal process....:D

AL

[Scott Challoner]

Do you think that the melt-back suggests that the print was not on paper, but perhaps a heat transfer or maybe a water slide? I guess I have to figure some things out by experimenting, it's just that I dont want to be wasting cash or time right now for things I dont need.

That's what I was thinking. Maybe even vinyl.

[Martin Boekers]

I use water slide for many different things. It's really neat.

Papillo makes all sorts of transfer materials so you may want to check them out
also.

I transfer to wood plaques from time to time, but if the plaque has a finish on it
I have to cover the wood completely with the transfer sheet, if you don't and only
cut around the image you will get and deboss where the edge of the transfer sheet is.

Marty