What's up guys, I'm Brad Rodriguez from Fix This Build That and today, I'm gonna show you five different ways to print on wood. I'm gonna show you four DIY methods, and one method that is totally cheating. And the results were pretty cool. That's not even the best one. Let's check them all out. For the five different ways I'm gonna use a printout for each one of them so we can compare it and I can show you the results. I got my logo on here, I've got a little picture so if you want to do a picture you can see how that looks. And some text so you can kind of see how it works for all those different scenarios, and that's gonna be what you might want to use for yours. The first way that you can print on wood is acetone. I'm going to show you this. Again, this is all based around laser printed. So this is all toner. This is not inkjet. This method will work for inkjet though. Just not as well. To transfer the ink I laid the mirror image print out on the wood and I creased the paper over the edge to hold it in place. You could also use tape here. I used a plastic hotel keycard wrapped in a shop towel then I dipped it in the acetone. Then I just firmly pressed the keycard down onto the wood and let the acetone soak into the paper. And I rubbed the towel back and forth along the surface Now it doesn't take long at all and the ink is transfer it over. Then the paper just peels right up. There's no stickiness and it reveals the image. All right, so that's the acetone here. You can see the picture quality. It turned out pretty decent like I mentioned but on the picture It's a little bit bad. Whenever you have a lot of that dark text it's also not the greatest. But with the little text it looks actually pretty good for just the line text. So that's okay. So pros, It's very quick. It's clean It's cheap. On the cons you know you're dealing with the harsh chemical. Acetone is a little bit nasty and Obviously the picture quality would also be a con. Let's move onto the next one. All right, the next way to print on wood is to use a clothes iron Now you probably don't want to use the one in the house that your husband or wife is using Don't do that. Go ahead and grab one from Goodwill this one I think I got was two bucks, and I use it for edge banding. But the idea is that we have toner from a laser printer. We're gonna use heat to transfer that to the wood Let's see how it's done The clothes iron method is extremely simple. I just put the paper down and I creased it over the edge like I did before. Then I literally just iron the paper just making sure that it didn't move around while I was doing it. I tried to press down hard and I had the iron on high But I still don't think that it was enough heat. When I peeled off the paper it did not look good. All right pros and cons for the clothes iron. Obviously for the pros it is very cheap. Almost everybody's got an iron that they can use and it is quick and efficient. The cons, picture quality not great. It does okay on text. It might be better if you had a hotter iron or a more isolated heat source. And also just from a con perspective you can burn yourself you can scorch the wood That brings some variables that you might not want in the shop. All right let's move onto the next one. The third way to print on wood is to use a water-based polyurethane. I've got polycrylic here I'm gonna put this on. I'm gonna put it on the wood, Put it on top and let it dry and then we're gonna remove the paper and the image should be below. Let's see how it works. I brushed on the polycrylic with a small acid brush trying to get a thin film that was wet but not puddling. I think less is better than more in this instance, and you really don't need a lot. Then I press the paper down into the wet polycrylic and I smooth the paper from the center outward to remove any air bubbles. And to firmly seat the paper into the polycrylic before setting it aside to dry. It's been about an hour and the polycrylic looks pretty dry so I got some water and a stiff toothbrush, and I'm just gonna remove this paper off the back using some water to loosen it up. I found the easiest way to remove the paper is to wet the whole back first and then peel off as much as you can by hand before scrubbing. Then it's just gentle scrubbing with the toothbrush until all the papers gone. I wiped off the wood with a shop towel, then I looked at the results. Got the polycrylic done and this looks amazing! Really good job of transferring the ink, very dark and the picture is almost perfect. So this one did a really good job. I'm a little bit surprised actually. So for the pros obviously image quality is gonna be first and foremost Great quality on that transfer. It's gonna look awesome. Also, if you're a woodworker you probably already have some water-based poly on hand. The cons, it takes a little bit longer because you have to let it dry It's also a little mess and I'm gonna have to go in here and clean this up a bit. But all-in-all, this is a great option. All right let's see the next one The fourth way is one that's probably the most popular that I've seen a lot of YouTube videos on is using an acrylic gel medium. Tthis one is a liquitex. I'll have a link down below in the description to this one as well as all the different materials that I use in this project. But this is basically for acrylic paint But when you put it on the surface it will also transfer that ink onto the wood, so let's see how it works. The gel medium goes on similarly to the polycrylic except it's a gel versus a liquid. So I found a foam brush worked well to distribute the gel ecause the brush just left too many ridges. Now again here less is more I press the paper into the gel and then I pushed out all the air bubbles with my fingers and then with the keycard since the gel is just a little bit thicker, and it was not as easy to move as that polycrylic was. Then again I set it aside to dry. Okay, this one is dry and let this sit as well. The process is gonna be very similar to what I did on the last one for the polycrylic. Just gonna put some water on here, some warm water, and get it off. I only let this sit for about an hour to an hour and a half. You don't need to do it overnight from my test. Let's see how it turns out. The only thing different from the polycrylic was when scrubbing the gel medium it seemed to grab a lot harder. I think this is because the gel is thicker and then there's just more of a buildup on the surface. So maybe thinning the gel with water before application could help. Alright the gel medium turned out great the quality is great. Just like the polycrylic. Looks really good really dark great transfer. The only thing about this one is that this paper is really sticking to it, so especially if you left this overnight. It would be extremely hard. This is about an hour and a half, and I still have a lot of paper left on here and I scrubbed it a little longer than I did the polycrylic. So for the pros, I'm gonna say excellent transfer quality. You know it's fairly easy to go on but it is messy from a con perspective and is also a lot harder to get off. So I'm gonna go back into this clean it up a little bit, and I'm gonna get you to number five. I'm gonna do a little cheating. The fifth way that I'm going to print on wood is not DIY, but it is awesome, and yes, it is cheating. It's gonna use a CNC laser. Let's check it out This is my Full Spectrum hobby laser. It can engrave wood plastics leather, and the setup is really easy. I just put the wood in the machine, I line up the little red positioning dot and then just press print similar to printing on your own printer. Now the laser starts its path and it isn't fast, but it sure is fun to watch. Now I got this laser from Rockler Woodworking, and it's an older model now but I'll have a link below in the description if you want to check out what these things are all about. Alright, so the laser print obviously it turned out great because that is laser controlled the logo looks really awesome. Everything is really finely defined the only drawback of the laser on on using it on pine is the density between the wood is not consistent. So it burns deeper in some areas Which you kind of see on the logo there. But again everything turns out really nicely. The obvious pros of the laser is it's super accurate and the text looks amazing. But the downfall obviously is the price, okay? But if you're getting that to print on wood you're not just gonna be doing that you're gonna be doing other things like making boxes Stuff like that. It's a great tool to have I'm fortunate to have one and you might be able to get access to one at a local Maker Space So you don't have to go out and buy one necessarily. Alright, I've got all five of these methods laid out in front of me I'm gonna give you a close-up and show you how each of them look compared to the other. Then I'm gonna put some finish on them and we'll see how that changes things too so when you look at them. I think that the polycrylic would definitely be my first choice. The gel medium my second just because there's a lot of extra effort on that one. Then acetone if you wanted something super quick and easy. Clothes iron, wouldn't do it. And if you've got lots of money then I go with the laser. I'm gonna put some lacquer on here, and we'll see how these change After I put the finish starting to change my mind a little bit. I tell you what, number one acetone it really darkened it up. I like the look of it. The clothes iron, what can we say that's really not good at all. Polycrylic still by far my favorite one. Blacks are super crisp and also the finish on it is very very smooth. Gel medium this one changed my mind after the finish you can see here It is not very smooth at all. The finish brought out all the little bumps from the leftover paper And which means I would I had to spend a lot more time cleaning that off to get a really nice finish. I'm gonna knock that one down behind the acetone now. The CNC laser turned out great but it doesn't darken up with the finish, and it's not that black if you're really looking for it. It's much more of a burnt wood look or a pyography look. There you go guys now you know five different ways to print on wood and how each of them turns out. I'm going with the polycrylic I really enjoy that one the finish on it is great And it's a nice combination between being easy as well as having a good product at the end. If you're not subscribed to the channel already I'd love to have you as part of the team and until next time Get out there and build something awesome!
Low bullshit, gets to the point, easy to implement at any skill level. I feel like a better person for having watched this. Thank you!
Honey I will be back. Going out for some minwax polycrilic protective finish.
I do gel transfers for my artwork, and can confirm the following:
1) Use a foam brush, not a paintbrush. You will get distressing of the image wherever the hair leaves strokes
2) I would leave it to dry for four hours rather than under two. You don't need to wait overnight, but at less than two hours the gel hasn't cured enough and the image will sometimes scrub away
3) Different types of paper will require different amounts of elbow grease to remove all the fibres. I don't know what's changed in papermaking since the 80s, but I was recycling a ton of old school papers for my toner prints and the fibres require about five times as much work as modern photocopy paper. Whatever thinner paper my bank is sending statements on scrubs off in only one or two passes. I am considering calling to find out what the brand/weight is!
This was a great tutorial, thank you for your efforts. I'm going to see if I can find some polycrylic in small quantities to experiment with!
Awesome comparison. Thanks! Any thoughts on scale? How large you might go?
I've been contemplating a project of transferring some of my favorite boardgame boards to a thin wood sheets. Hang them on the wall until ready to play.
This could work with colour laser as well, yeah? The poly method would probably transfer it all.
Great comparison but what about the inkjet method? That one can be full color and it turns out great.
Great video! I used to make my own PCBs using toner transfer with a hot iron, followed by water. Although, I couldn't use any printer paper; I had to specifically use inkjet photo paper to get a good result. I never tried it on wood, so I can't say for sure it would make a difference. But, the photo paper had a glossy, filmy texture that better released the toner.
Did you use inkjet photo paper for your tests? If not, would you consider revisiting these tests in a followup video?
Thanks for sharing. Great video. I'm going to watch others.
When doing the polycrylic method , if you wanted to stain the wood along side the transfer, would it be best to do it before or after the transfer?