Sublimating Natural Wood

[WorthDoingRight]

Hi All,

I have been asked whether it is feasible to use dye sublimation directly onto a light pine piece of wood. I am aware that dye sublimation to wooden jigsaws and mdf plaques is common but does anyone know if it is possible or had any success in sublimating to a natural wood product?

Best regards,

Richard

[Scapaflyer]

Hi Richard
I am fairly new to the world of Dye Sub and this is something I am interested in. I have seen various sellers on ebay selling a coating for treating items in preparation for printing.
All these sellers seem to be in America, so I have done nothing about it due to the logistics of importing chemicals, that said I have not looked it to it and it may not be a problem.
Anyway a couple of days ago I found this and I am just about to order some http://www.coralgraph.com/sublimation-c ... c285e6e0a0
I hope this is of help to you

[WorthDoingRight]

Hi Scapaflyer,

I have some clear polyester coating already which I suppose I could paint over the wood but my question is do you need to coat wood to be able to sublimate on it?

I suppose if no one knows then I will have to have a go myself at some stage.

Many thanks for the response.

Richard

[pisquee]

I would think that when the ink sublimates it would go into the wood as it is quite a porous material. As you are not going to be putting the wood through a washing machine, it doesn't have the same limitation as say cotton fibres/fabric. You may want to varnish it afterwards (if it works) to seal the inks in. If it doesn't work, then the digicoat stuff should work well, as the wood would soak it up quite nicely.

(All of the above is more me thinking out loud, as based on assumption - don't take it as gospel! It is something I too have been thinking about doing, but not got around to yet)

[WorthDoingRight]

@pisquee Well your thinking is along the same lines as mine. I cannot see why it would not work any differently to wooden jigsaws or plaques. There may be an issue with having a smooth enough surface but just thought someone might have a definitive answer or tangible reasons why it would/would not work.

Thanks

[Scapaflyer]

Ok, so you know somebody had to try this. I spent more time trying to find a suitable piece of wood in my shed than actually playing with the setup, but here what I have.
I used a piece of old Burbidge board that has been in my shed for years, so the moisture content will be quite high.
I printed the transfer using a Ricoh set to the saturated setting on cheap dye sub paper that I got off fleabay ( I'm sure a better paper would greatly improve things as would a new piece of wood).
i set the press to 220 degrees celsius and 70 seconds for the first of these prints and 90 seconds for the second print
Lesser times and temp were very disappointing.
I also tried longer time settings but that just resulted in the wood starting to scorch.

http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv21 ... /wood1.jpg
http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv21 ... r/wood.jpg

Sorry the piccies are a little washed out.
As you can see the colours in pic 2 are starting to take far better but the paper was also starting to stick to the wood, this may be because of the resin coming out of the wood, or it may be because of the fact that it is cheap paper, I stopped using this paper as I found it stuck subli metal in the past.

My conclusion is that with decent moisture free timber and good quality paper may give some quite good results.
If anybody does try this please remember to use silicon paper top and bottom, as when the timber gets hot resin starts to ooze out (not good for your press)

I will do some more experimenting when I get time and post the results if I get any better.

[Ian M]

Can you sublimate onto bare wood, metal or glass? Can you use any polyester-based item in sublimation?

Sublimation works specifically with polyester-based or polyester-coated items only. While you can find 100% polyester materials outside of your dealer's catalogs (e.g. ribbons, felt sheets), some outside products might have other materials added such as nylon or a protective plastic coating which might not hold up to the heat required in sublimation (350 – 400 degrees Fahrenheit). We recommend testing a small piece of any outside polyester materials first by sandwiching it between two sheets of Teflon in your press in case the product melts.

[GoldRapt]

I have used TMT 6.0 to print onto a mirror and it looks good.
I have also seen a guy paint elmers (?) onto wood then use Heat Transfer paper to heat press an image onto wood.
Maybe what you want to do can be done, it's all trial and error and then more importantly testing the longevity and durability of the finished piece.

[WorthDoingRight]

Well thanks for all the input guys and especially to Scapaflyer for his experimentation. I have been researching on google and came across an article where they sublimated onto hardwood floor boards (some worked, some did not) and that once sublimated they were hardwearing. I imagine this is down to the coating used on the floor boards but without further research it does not answer whether wood has to always be treated first.

[pisquee]

I wouldn't think it would have to be coated (as shown in the above experiments), but you stand to get better results if it is in terms of colour and clarity. Depending on your design, having an image that isn't so sharp may work OK, as it is seen to be on such a natural product ... make your design work with the substrate - not all artwork needs to be pristine and glossy bright.
I've seen monochrome artwork burnt into pieces of plywood - I assume that they've used a heat press in some way, and may or may not have just used black ink.