printing

[james matthews]

I have read somewhere that you could print a pattern,and then transfer it to a piece of wood with an iron,has any one done this or knows about it?

[John Miliunas]

James, I've had some limited success with that, but it largely depends on the original and the type of material you're "printing" too. Also, be aware that this is for copies made with a laser printer/copier, not a regular inkjet. I forget exactly what setting I had on the iron, though I believe it was somewhere 1/2 or a bit better than that.:) :cool:

[Lee DeRaud]

James, I've had some limited success with that, but it largely depends on the original and the type of material you're "printing" too. Also, be aware that this is for copies made with a laser printer/copier, not a regular inkjet.I think they have color transfer material for regular inkjets now, intended for making t-shirts. Don't know how well it would work on wood, might depend on if it was just used as a pattern (like for scrollsawing) or if it needs to be permanent.

(I either saw it at Staples or I was hallucinating...pretty much even money.)

[Don Baer]

I know that office depot carries they stuff for transfering a pattern onto tee shirts. Like Lee said, I don't know how good this stuff works on wood but it would be worth a try.

[Andrew Ault]

I've done this a few times. Copiers and laser printers use a black plastic toner that is melted to the paper. I've used Corel to draw what I want, reverse it left to right, print it on a laser and then use an iron to transfer it to wood.

In the past, I've also printed with an inkjet, wetted the paper and transferred a design that way. However, now inkjet inks are much more water resistant, so that won;t work for me anymore.

- Andy

[Roger Fitzsimonds]

Hi James,

When I ran a camera for the SE woodturning symposium, the speaker was Ben Phoo ( forgive the spelling) he recommended xylene to transfer laser copies to wood. he said that through trail and experimenting this has worked for him. Just another method for you to try.

Roger

[Bart Sharp]

I've used an iron to transfer laser-printed carving patterns to wood several times with very good success. Of course you have to reverse the pattern before printing it so that it will transfer right-way-round, but that's no big deal in most software packages.

I've found that turning the iron up all the way works best. After holding the iron over an area to get it good and hot, I usually rub back and forth using the edge of the iron to promote transfer of the toner onto the wood. One other tip is to be careful about rubbing the iron on areas that aren't covered with paper. My iron doesn't get hot enough to burn the wood in any way, but the metal sole does leave marks where it rubs over and burnishes bare wood. The pattern will become slightly stuck to the wood as the toner transfers and then cools a little, which means you can peel the pattern partway back to see if some areas need more attention without worrying too much about the pattern shifting. Just don't peel it back so far that none of it is stuck anymore.