I would love to be able to make wooden puzzles. How do you print a good picture on wood?
Oh. Not sure about that. I was talking about the ones that slide together to make things like dinosaurs and stuff.
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Here were some slip-fit dinosaur puzzles cut with a IIRC 3.5W Banggood laser out of corrugated cardboard from a few years ago. The machine those were cut on is long gone but the laser info is just as good as ever…
– David
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I personally feel that using Lightburn allowed me to step up my game with photo engravings on various materials – chipboard, craft sticks, foam, ceramic tile, glass, etc. – using nothing more than a 2.5W diode laser. I documented my progress with photo prep and various materials, borrowing heavily from the work of @Bulldog on the LB forum, in this thread…
Good looking photos on wood can be tricky, of course, because of the grain pattern on different species. Following @Bulldog’s lead, I played a little with dithered images on painted, white-washed, and plain wood samples and it definitely can be used to good effect IMO.
I want to be able to make something like this (they know how to make puzzles better than websites):
I have no idea how that would be even close to possible.
That would be interesting. You could print the painting onto paper and then use a thinned glue to glue it to 1/16" plywood. That should be thin enough for a fairly fast laser to cut through in a single pass.
If you went too slow, I think it’d burn too much of the paper on the top of the wood.
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Does Masonite (hard board) laser cut well? It seems that would reduce the possibility of splinters.
The thinner plywood doesn’t seem to splinter when cut with the laser. It seems to leave a pretty smooth edge. A light pass against some high grit sand paper would knock it off.
I’m using hardieboard under the part I’m cutting so that I don’t burn my workbench. It hasn’t seemed to burn through just yet. I could try to actually cut it and see how that goes later today.
Cool, but to my knowledge, Hardieboard is a cement-containing material. Hardboard (one brand name = Masonite) is a fibrous material - like what pegboards are commonly made of.
Not to get too crazy, but you could use a dye sublimation transfer to the wood to get the image on. Kinda like an iron-on.
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I was wondering if there was a way to print the pattern to wax paper with an inkjet and then somehow iron it onto the wood and pull off the paper. I have memories of seeing this done when I was a kid, but no idea what it was.
Gluing the paper to the board is probably a good substitute. I wonder if you could reduce the burning issue by cutting from the bottom. Maybe the support structure would matter more at that point./
I guess the air assist wouldn’t reach down as far either.
In my experience (K40), masonite (tempered hardboard) does not cut well. I could get cuts etched into the top but never cut through.
Ah, just curious. It might be due to the resins holding it together, like some have commented on with plywood.
That’s probably it. Lots of layers of what looks like dark brown paper bonded under pressure.
You’re right. I’m sorry. I read one thing and typed something else. Masonite is what I have under my grid.
Right now I’m using a light diffuser (plastic grid) to raise the lite plywood off of the ground and then I have the masonite under that so that it doesn’t burn the table top.
I have seen folks use ModPodge from craft stores to basically transfer photos onto wood. The trick is to print the photo on quality photo stock paper in reverse - most selfies are perfect already! - so when you do the transfer it comes out right.
There’s a gal who did a YouTube video on this - I have forgotten the name of the channel - but you could look that up.
I would cut the wood into the puzzle parts, use a dry-mount or rack-frame to keep the parts together, then apply the ModPodge to the puzzle pieces to apply the photo. This way the puzzle pieces come apart easily after the picture has transferred.
Back in the day… In the middle 80s or early 90s, Xerox sold transfer inks for their printer (rebranded Tektronix) that you ironed on. I had a few of the printers, since I had access to the Tektronix Company Store, and played around with feature.
Ah modpodge… my wife introduced me to that years ago when I was looking for ways to toughen up rc aircraft built out of EPS. That stuff is a good general purpose clear adjesive… works a lot like watered down PVA glue… maybe that is what it is actually. The thing to consider in this application, is if you use an inkjet printer the image is likely to bleed before the modpodge dries up. If you got access to a decent laser printer that can do color photos, then you are in like flyn.
I learned lots of stuff about adhesives doing rc foamies though. In this case, if it were an inkjet image, I would probably try a fast drying oil based polyurethane (like Varathane floor finish). If that doesn’t do it, there is always 3m77 spray adhesive. Still though, it would be best to have some kind of clear coat over the print I think.
Regardless what glue you use, I think a laser doide would have no problem cutting the glued paper after it is dried/cured. That would sure beat having to chase the joints by hand with a razor anyways… probably turn out a lot cleaner too.
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Those wax nugget printers really made some nice prints.
Oh yes, especially if we are talking about using greyscale. You need to have an uber uniform surface for greyscale to even come close to working (greyscale+wood = fail). Dithered methods are much more WYSIWYG on mixed wood surfaces. If we’re using Lightburn, there is also the halftone option that I’ve been playing with that works pretty well for smoother images. It seems to look more gradual across shading vs normal dithered anyways.