Designs on Timber

Hi all. I was asked by a friend of mine, when I showed her a timber box that I had made, could I put a design on the lid of it. The design that she was referring to was a celtic design as this lady is a leader of a scottish pipe band.

My answer was, I dont know, would have to think about this. So I guess I have a few questions here to put to all the experts in this forum.

* How could I put a design onto timber and then apply a finish over the top of it. Maybe I could try my hand at marquetry however I have never attempted this The shapes might be a bit fiddly. I once seen where you can somehow print out a photo or similar on an inkjet printer and transfer the image to timber. Any thoughts on this,..?

* The next question would be, are you allowed to put such a design on a box of your own, or is there some sort of copyright issued involved in this type of thing.

Regards, Paul

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pauls321

I once seen where you can somehow print out a photo or similar on an inkjet printer and transfer the image to timber. Any thoughts on this,..?


Regards, Paul

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What your after is water slide decals. You can get them from ebay at a reasonable price. This is just one example.

cheers
WH

Hi WH, This looks very interesting. Have you tried this on timber, ?

Paul

You can use laser engraving on timber, and it looks pretty good. Your local trophy engraver should be able to help.

Hi and thanks Alex, what would be a ball park figure that one might expect to pay an engraver for such a logo/design.

Thanks, Paul

For the various jobs I've had done the price has ranged between $20 - $40 for single designs/text, depending on size. If you're having a few of the same design done, it brings the unit cost down.

Laser is the way to go. To highlight the engraving a liming white stain can be applied before the engraving is done.

you could always try PYROGRAPHY, and do it your self.

Jeff
vk4

Prepare your image as if it would appear if looked at with a mirror. A black and white lazer print of this/these design/s you want to use to the size that you require.
The best paper I find for image transfer is 'the type that draftsmen use' permatrace or similar. If that is not available 60 or so gram, rather than 80 gram (photocopy paper) are several alternatives.
Ensure the wood surface is very smooth - I use pieces of floor polishing pads and rub well until surface is smooth.
If I want the surface even smoother (especially for pyrography) I use a piece of metal that has a slight bur on the edge that I 'burnish' the wood with. Ensure the tool is set at an angle that is 'dragged' over the wood until it has a surface that looks as if it has been polished.
I use a 1400w iron to transfer the image onto the wood (the reason for a mirror image, especially if lettering or type is included. I have the iron as hot as possible, and iron over just the image. About 60 sec for an A4 sheet, but depends on the iron, the paper and the wood stock.
Make sure the paper does not slide, but if you lift and roll up a small part you have ironed you will have a good idea whether you have enough heat and pressure.
I use this process often (works well with black and white photos) but I have improved my iron by using a belt sander to remove about 2 mm depth of 3/4 of the base - NOT THE POINT end. Hope this was helpful. Cheers from Don.

If you decide to go with water-slide decals, try here: RB Custom Decals

A relief carving of any Celtic design would look more sophisticated.

I have used celtic designs on some of my projects , my method is using freehand routing with a 1.6 mm bit or the smallest bit you can find and inlay it with recycled plastics for colour [buckets, plant pots ,yoghurt lids , icecream containers ..you get the drift] also I use copper or aluminium sheets ..a bit harder to do but very effective ,one the good thing about doing it this way is you can sand all you like and the design is still there. As for copyright ,I don`t know but if you copy say from designs that were created over a thousand years ago ,who`s to know :wink: This is a nest of tables I did a while back.

Attachment 235368

Ignore the message haha... but what I did here (it was an attempt at romance :P ).... I basically found a nice font on photoshop and made a design to print out on a few pages... although this has to be sort of big...

Step 1: make and print off your design.
Step 2: lay masking tape across your whole work area with a slight overlap or even possible a big enough sticker to cover the area.
Step 3: Tape the designs in the arrangement you want them in across the area.
Step 4: make sure the designs are tight (I learnt the hard way).
Step 5: get a sharp craft knife and slowly cut out the design all the way through into the work surface.
Step 6: pull off the design and peel back the sticker or masking tape where you want to apply paint to.
Step 7: mask off any areas of timber exposed and spray paint the design to suit (not going to give a tutorial on spraying).
Step 8: leave it over night to dry and peel off all the masking tape and touch up with a very fine paint brush where needed.
Step 9: add whatever top coat you want on the piece but make sure it doesn't affect your paint (test on a small piece sprayed at the same time).

Hopefully this might help somebody and also kick off with my first post :).

Good one, SL, and welcome to the forum.
TM