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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
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    Mudgee
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    Default Transfering photos to timber

    Hi guys
    hope you can help, I've seen a lot of articles on how to to transfer photos to wood
    (print it out in mirror reverse, glue it to the timber then rub off the paper with wet fingers....)
    but they all say to use "a clear gel medium" to glue the pic down
    most of those articles are American tho

    does anyone know of of a suitable product available for this...?

    I tried wood glue and it leaves a white haze

    cheers

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Brisbane
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    Default

    My daughter recently used gel medium to transfer a photo to fabric. You can buy it at Office Works, Spotlight or Bunnings, e.g. https://www.spotlightstores.com/craf...iums/c/mediums.

    Jeremy

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
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    NZ
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    Default

    There is a CNC burner that's not a laser thus appears to have fantastic gradient control. But it's obviously only greyscale rather than colour. There was a Russian (I think, don't shoot me if he was Ukranian or someOtherStanian) fellow on ebay selling them. The software imported images and the burner spat out renderings of said images.

  5. #4
    Join Date
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    Tallahassee FL USA
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    4,650

    Default

    I've used the mirror image face down, but the original must be a photocopy or laser print. The image is an acrylic emulsion, set by heat in the photocopier or laser printer. Attach it to the wood with a couple staples outside the image area, and pass over it with a clothes iron at its highest setting (usually "Linen"). This transfers the emulsion to the wood, although it's time consuming. A soldering iron also works well. Periodically lift the paper to assess progress.

    For ink-jet printers, which also provide color, fabric shops sell print paper for transfer to clothing, also using the clothes iron.

    Cheers,
    Joe
    Of course truth is stranger than fiction.
    Fiction has to make sense. - Mark Twain

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
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    Mudgee
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    46
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    Default

    Thanks everyone for your help
    we're in a small town so don't have many shops but there is a small Bunnings so I'll check there

    i'll also try the trick with the iron on high heat too...

    i'll post some pics in project sharing thread when I'm done

    Thx again )

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Adelaide
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    289

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by LetDanHandleIt View Post
    Thanks everyone for your help
    we're in a small town so don't have many shops but there is a small Bunnings so I'll check there

    i'll also try the trick with the iron on high heat too...

    i'll post some pics in project sharing thread when I'm done

    Thx again )
    Dan,
    the "clear gel medium" they are talking about is an artists medium. Its basically a paint without the colour pigment. Artists use these mediums to add to coloured paints to get various effects, matt, gloss, satin, thickening or thinning or controlling drying time. I hope Mudgee is big enough for an art or craft shop. Go to them and tell them what you want it for and they will probably know the technique anyway. An artist friend of mine explained it to me a couple of years ago. IMG_1357.JPG_edited-3.jpg
    I have included a picture of a couple of items. The jar on the left is the medium which will work as described. The middle bottle is a Jo Sonya varnish (they make heaps of different types, I think I have seen Jo Sonya stuff at Bunnings?) which will probably work and the Mod Podge will also probably work.

    Another way to do your ink jet printer one is to print out the picture (reversed) onto a waxed paper (you might need to tape it to a carrier paper) or use a label sheet (take off all the labels and print on where the labels were, the shiny side). The ink wont dry (careful it can smudge) but simply place it face down and rub it and most of the ink will be transferred to the wood.

    Regards
    SWK

    PS I did a quick look and found Derivans web page, they even have the "Gel medium" (MM4) but any of the 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 26, 28 & 30 mediums will work (and probably 24 but that would have something like glitter in it).

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Helensburgh
    Posts
    7,696

    Default

    Frank Howarth has recently done the photo to wood thing with a CNC. I think the way he did it is the single most complicated thing I have ever seen done in wood but it is very interesting and you would wonder how he thought it all through but he is an architect so that may help. There is no way on God's earth I could even contemplate it. The audio is lousy at the beginning but keep watching....

    CHRIS

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Brisbane
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    7

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by swk View Post
    Another way to do your ink jet printer one is to print out the picture (reversed) onto a waxed paper (you might need to tape it to a carrier paper) or use a label sheet (take off all the labels and print on where the labels were, the shiny side). The ink wont dry (careful it can smudge) but simply place it face down and rub it and most of the ink will be transferred to the wood.
    Given that I have an inkjet printer than has a straight feed path for heavy paper/card, you've got me wondering if I could print directly onto some veneer.

    Jeremy

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Canberra
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    5,124

    Default

    Mod Podge is an excellent method of both sticking down paper onto timbers (and MDF) and also finishing off over the top.

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    McBride BC Canada
    Posts
    3,543

    Default

    SWK said it all for the artists' acrylic medium. Most makers of acrylic art paints have a couple (matte, satin and gloss).
    The idea is that the medium does a better job of diluting acrylic paints than water will ever do = never goes chalky and adhesion is excellent.
    As a top coat for finishing, clear as picture glass. Mod Podge is likely one of many medium formulas.

  12. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    usa
    Posts
    12

    Default

    I learned of this years ago when I was in the food service industry. I can only give you general information. You will have to follow up to learn more. But it came from the bakery department in one of our supermarkets that decorates cakes for birthdays and other special occasions. They are able to take a photo you give them and transfer it to the icing on the cake. They copy your photo on a computer and print it out on a special paper, lay it over the cake top, and then mist it with water. They then pull off the paper, leaving a very respectable image of your photo on the cake top. The ink is both water soluble and edible.

    I assume you could transfer an image in similar fashion and then seal the image with spray shellac, acrylic, or some other finish that is not water based.

    You will have to get with someone at a bakery for more specifics about the ink, papers, and process they use. But it might be a help.

  13. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Thornton NSW
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    456

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by JAJ View Post
    Given that I have an inkjet printer than has a straight feed path for heavy paper/card, you've got me wondering if I could print directly onto some veneer.

    Jeremy
    you can, there are products made specifically for this. KW Doggett papers sell one called wood fx which is a veneer on a gloss white card backing. I don't see why you couldn't use paper backed veneers in an inkjet, though the porosity might cause some ink bleed (photo papers are manufactured to control this using clays and polymer coatings) and you'd want to be careful about the grain direction - even paper has long and short grain sides and feeding the wrong way will curl.

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