Wood charms with Sublimation? [Help needed!]

#1

Hi everyone!

I’m looking to make some jewellery by lasercutting wood shapes and having my art ‘printed’ onto the wood itself. I’m looking to make an effect like this:
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3

So far I’ve tried using waterslide decals and had limited success- it doesn’t stick well to the laser-ply (tested on workshop scraps) and is overly glossy. I’m going to keep trying with it (experimenting with how to prep the wood to make it more adhesive mostly, and using matte spray coat). However, after speaking with @Martyn_Thomas he suggested trying sublimation. So my questions are: do we have a printer that’s capable of sublimation? If not, I may invest in an Epson Ecotank and convert it for sublimation if that’s the answer. Does anyone have any experience in this?

Thanks very much!

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#2

@Dorine is the expert on Sublimation

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#3

And here’s a tool page :slight_smile: Epson ECOTANK ET-2814 (DRAFT)

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#4

Please keep us updated with how you get on - I wouldn’t mind trying something like that myself!

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#5

Sounds interesting and doable.

Have you sourced pre treated wood that will take the sublimation?

It needs a polyester base for the ink to bind with. There are white and clear sprays that can be used for this. You could also sub onto white coated aluminum or Cast Acrylic and use the CNC to cut the little dies out and do a marquetry design gluing wood to alu/acrylic as an inserts

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#6

To start I’m going to be experimenting with the wood that’s available in the workshop for laser cutting, and treating it myself after I’ve made the shapes. Looking online most people seem to be using either laminating sheets or polyacrylic for it, I think I’ll start with trying the latter- I’m trying to avoid it being too glossy, and am looking to avoid using aerosol sprays where I can.

Hopefully looking to get onto this in the coming days - is there anything in particular I need to know about the sublimation printer before trying it out? Any sublimation paper you’d recommend? I’m also aware that I’ll be using ink as I go and am happy to reimburse that cost somehow, I know it’s not cheap!

Thanks :slight_smile: