Pictures Printed On Wood

[rdean]

I do wood projects about half of the time and lately I have been trying to cut pictures into wood using a V-Carve pattern. The picture is turned into a grey scale and lines are cut at about 30 degrees across the wood. The darker portions cut deeper and wider because of the v bit. After cutting the grooves are filled (painted usually black) and left to dry. Then the paint is sanded or cut off just enough to reveal the picture. I haven't had a lot of success with this process as everything has to be perfectly flat, no bleeding of the paint and it is only cut to 0.025 deep to start with.
I saw reference to this process on another forum and did some investigation. There are several different ways of doing this and many print to plain paper, apply a film of chemical(can't remember the name) to the wood, apply the photo and then let it dry overnight. The next day you have to wash, dissolve the paper and the photo is revealed.

This is one process that is almost too easy and very fast.
I sanded a piece of poplar about the size of the photo.
I used the backing from a sheet of labels I had and printed directly on to the shiny side of the paper. (don"t touch the ink)
I lined it up on the wood and applied it face down then added a small book on top for weight. (if the paper moves you are done)
This is the original picture


This is the result


Total time just minutes.

Ray

 

[Terrywerm]

Neat idea, Ray. Looks like it works rather well. Thanks for posting it!