Printing on Wood with an Inkjet Printer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fred_M
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Fred_M

Print on wood with your inkjet? Sounds crazy, but I did it. I’ll show you how. Get a sheet of 1/64 Birch Plywood and trim it so that it’s 8 ½ inches wide. It will then feed fine into my HP 692c printer, so it should work on most brands. The grain goes perpendicular to the feed roll so that the wood can wrap around the roller. I then used my greeting card software to make a sign. The image needs rotated 90 degrees so it lines up correctly with the grain in the wood. Test on paper first to save money on wood. I then made a nice fence from my test image.

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What about white signs you may ask. I print them on paper and trim it to make a mask. I then spray the wood with flat white spray paint and allow it to dry. I then print and allow extra time for the ink to dry. Here’s the first white backed sign on wood. Next one I would mask with tape, but it’s proof of concept.

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The 1/64 wood is more flexible than some of the cardstock I print on, so I wasn't really worried about the printer. Those old HPs are cheap in the used computer stores anyway. I sell them for $10 without ink as it's the ink that is costly. Charles H, styrene brick eh? I accept your challange. brb...

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Printed on Plastistruct plastic brick sheet using the white paint method. :D Fred
 
That's fantastic Fred - great idea!!!! I'm going to have to try it with the brick sheet. And an added bonus is that the "paint" looks like it's already faded and weathered! Tooo Cool!!!!! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Val
 
So even though I have like 10 projects in various states of completion (not counting the never to be done layout) I jumped ahead tonight and started another. I printer the sign filler for a storefront to go on the river of my new layout. The fish I got at Hobby Lobby for a buck US. Thought that was a heck of a deal. Them Chineese painter sure do good painting for their part of a buck is all I can say. I wouldn't spay it white for what they make. Fred
 

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:thumb: :wave: Hi Fred. Great idea and it looks great but I have one question, I tried it on a sheet of plain styrene OK, but the ink never seemed to dry. I used the photo setting for the printer which is the best. Did I use the wrong setting or did I not give the thing enough time to dry? It looked great though!!! If it would work for me I don't think I would ever paint another scratch build. Hehehe :eek: :eek: Jim
 
I printed on a flat white paint patch on the styrene. You are right, it will not dry and/or stick to bare styrene, the white paint gives it something to bite into. You might try spraying it with dullcoat first before printing if you don't wish a white backing. Fred
 
inkjet printing

dash10 said:
You are right, it will not dry and/or stick to bare styrene. Fred
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I have successfully used a copy machine to print on unpainted white styrene but that was just black.

I'm especially intreagued by this technique as I want to do a barn with an aged Mail Pouch ad painted on and I think this may be the way to go. :thumb:
 
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