Imprint Transfer Wands

Johnathon, I've used my woodburner and a transfer tip to do this on lots of things in the past year. Never used one of the transfer wands but it's the same concept and works great!

I've wondered if a cheap woodburner/soldering tool would work? I'm guessing you have something like that around, might give it a try? :dunno:
 
How hard do you press? I do have some woodburners with different tips and a couple of old soldering irons. Hmmmmmmm, thanks Jeff, might try that tomorrow. How durable or do you CA finish over it?
 
You don't need to press very hard at all. The heat does all the work. Any woodburner tip with a flat surface would work. Just have the tip moving when it meets the paper or it will burn the paper and the wood. Some trial and error with temp and movement is involved at first for sure. Hope you can get it to work for your students Johnathan! :thumb:

I only used danish oil over the transfer (4-5 coats)...CA should seal in in there forever I would think.
 
Jonathan,

I have an old unit that is, at least, similar, to the unit in the videos. It is like the burning tool I had as a kid. It is like a small soldering iron---guess something like 15 watts. I'll find it and send pics. It has been working fine for over 75 years.

It will burn designs in wood, just like some of our members do. There were many different shape tips for it (for burning thin lines, "v" lines, thick lines, shading, etc.).
Another use is to place foil or gold leaf or fake gold leaf on the wood surface and write/draw on it with the "pen." It permanently burns the gold or whatever into the wood.
It also works on other materials. My opticians used it for years putting patient's names and phone numbers on the inside of their glasses temples.

I will get it and send pics. It may be awhile, I promised a young man that I would go to a business promotion a company is putting on this evening. He wants to know if he should or should not go for it. Jeepers, what a responsibility. It was fun when I did this kind of thing for pay; doing it for free for a friend makes me feel more responsible. I know it should not be that way; actually I know it is not that way---but it feels that way.

Enjoy,

JimB
 
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I've never tried this exact process but I can add my $.02.

The trick here is in your laserjet or copier toner. That stuff is really plastic that is melted onto the paper. The idea is that the transfer tool melts the plastic into the wood. If I were going to try it, I would experiment with an iron first.

-- Make your image as clean as you can. Any scum on the sheet will become scum on the wood.
-- Set your printer as dark as you can to maximize the toner coverage.
-- I would try using bakers parchment as an intermediate. The paper is coated with heat resiistant silicone. If you can get the toner to stick to it, it might release more toner into the wood.
-- Experiment with the temperature. If you have one of those infra-red non-contact thermometers you could get really scientific about it.

Another interesting approach to imprinting wood might be sublimation transfer. You can buy kits for inkjets for making T-Shirt transfers. This is a special ink that, when subjected to the heat of an iron or T-Shirt Press turns into a gaseous dye. You print onto paper with the special ink (in reverse) and iron it on to the wood. Now you can have full color. But Sublimation transfer, being a gaseous process is limited in detail. Since the wood has to soak up the gases, you could do this process only on unfinished wood. Also, the blacks aren't all that black.
 
Jonathan,

I have an old unit that is, at least, similar, to the unit in the videos. It is like the burning tool I had as a kid. It is like a small soldering iron---guess something like 15 watts. I'll find it and send pics. It has been working fine for over 75 years.

It will burn designs in wood, just like some of our members do. There were many different shape tips for it (for burning thin lines, "v" lines, thick lines, shading, etc.).
Another use is to place foil or gold leaf or fake gold leaf on the wood surface and write/draw on it with the "pen." It permanently burns the gold or whatever into the wood.
It also works on other materials. My opticians used it for years putting patient's names and phone numbers on the inside of their glasses temples.

I will get it and send pics. It may be awhile, I promised a young man that I would go to a business promotion a company is putting on this evening. He wants to know if he should or should not go for it. Jeepers, what a responsibility. It was fun when I did this kind of thing for pay; doing it for free for a friend makes me feel more responsible. I know it should not be that way; actually I know it is not that way---but it feels that way.

Enjoy,

JimB

Sorry! I seem to have put it away so neatly that I cannot find it (sound familiar?). I will post pic when and if I find it.

Enjoy,

JimB
 
The kids are having fun using the wood burner and transferring information to the bottom of their square bowls. Thanks for all of the positive prompts. It is a neat thing if you haven't tried it and it is relatively easy to do!
 
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