engrave/direct jet technique

[Kevin Groenke]

Was forwarded this interesting technique video from our ULS rep. It's not what we use our laser for, but an interesting technique that some folks here may find useful.

http://www.russellbrown.com/Transfer/LaserPainting_draft.mov

-kg

[Martin Boekers]

His web page wouldn't open, but I did a search, and found about he is doing
3d engraving then running it through a flatbed printer. Interesting!I actually liked the effect!

Thanks for sharing it!

Marty

[Joe De Medeiros]

I wonder how much the printer costs, it looked very interesting.

never mind I found it, it's out of my price range even the 13x9 :(

[Michael Hunter]

I don't know that particular printer, but similar "flatbeds" I have come across are said to be rather unreliable.
Most have the "works" from a normal Epson wide-carriage jobbie and inherit the nozzle-clogging for which Epsons have been renowned, as well as newly introduced problems with moving the object to be printed.

When they do work, however, the results can be outstanding.

[Rodne Gold]

VERY unreliable - I have a VERY expensive boat anchor , I stupidly bought one ..... Never made a cent off it and spent copuntless hours trying to get it to work...when it did , it was brilliant....
If I had to do it again , which is not likely , I would bite the bulllet and get a flatbed UV printer

[Martin Boekers]

Just tossing this out there. Would it be possible to coat the wood
with a sublimatable coating after engraving and then transfer the image with a heat press?

I haven't tried doing sublimatable coatings but I know there are companies
that make it.

Has anyone tried coating things themselves?

Marty

[AL Ursich]

I am seeing all kinds of problems coating raw wood with the coating.

First is the 400 degrees...

Second is the moisture in the wood.... I must spend extra time drying press board plaques before pressing. I had a big blow out a while back doing a hardboard clipboard. Steam bubbles sounding like bullets going off.

CLTT is a fair option.

I have the Digi coat but have not had the time to do anything yet. It requires heat baking too.

I too DREAM of a Direct Jet.... Without all the problems... And YES... The UV Version is the way to go.... If I had the Money....

AL

[Martin Boekers]

I use .125 hardboard from Conde as I can laser cut it to shapes and sizes.so id do know what you mean about moisture:eek: It sizzles and pops!

Then I have to put weight on it while it cools down or it warps.

I can see where you are getting at with the coating (trapping moisture)in the board and popping trough the coating.

I do CLTT onto plaque right now, one issue I have is if the wood isn't raw
and has a coating
I have to cover the whole plaque with the transfer sheet or an outline
will show up in spraycoat. I'm not sure how CLTT will work with the
different depths of the wood
though even with a foam sheet to help form around the engraving.

Nothing is easy as I would like!

Hmmm, I wonder if it could work, at least for testing by making a round
disc the size of a CD and use the CD tray on a regular printer.

Marty

[Rodne Gold]

The problems I had with my a3 Busjet were head clogging and bulk ink feed related -based on an Epson 1290 and used the same heads .. some items had to be coated , but we found spray on artists fixative worked as well if not better than the supplied coating - you could do matte or glossy.
Printed on all sorts of materials , aluminium(anodised) , perspex , petersham ribbon , t-shirts (a little fuzzy) , flass , wood , board , paper , sign vinyl, banner material , spectrum light , rowmark flexibrass , traffolyte etc.

[Richard Rumancik]

Just tossing this out there. Would it be possible to coat the wood with a sublimatable coating after engraving and then transfer the image with a heat press? . . .

If you could coat it with a receptive coating, I question how well the rough surface would accept a transfer. The paper transfer would have to conform to all the hills and valleys of the engraved wood piece. Yes, a silicone pad might force the paper to contact the surface well enough but I'm just thinking that the transfer would be a bit iffy. Once you have that much work into the piece you can't afford anything less than 99% yield.

[Martin Boekers]

If you could coat it with a receptive coating, I question how well the rough surface would accept a transfer. The paper transfer would have to conform to all the hills and valleys of the engraved wood piece. Yes, a silicone pad might force the paper to contact the surface well enough but I'm just thinking that the transfer would be a bit iffy. Once you have that much work into the piece you can't afford anything less than 99% yield.

I wondered about a similar thing (depth of field and focus) with an flatbed printer.

A friend of mine is involved with developing this process. It's geared toward more high end commercial uses, in other words IT AIN"T CHEAP!:D

Pretty slick though check it out.
http://www.3dphotoworks.com/