Transferring Images to Wood

This is a guide to how to transfer images to wood using a wood burner and a laser printed image.

Some uses for this guide are to add weathered looking images to your project. You can also use this method to transfer a pattern to cut out on the scroll saw or other tool. I plan on using this on electronic enclosure projects to label the knobs and status lights

Step 1: Things You Need

Wood. We need something to put the image on.

A Wood Burning tool. I use a Weller WSB25WB. It was about 15$ on Amazon and comes with multiple tips. I use the disc shaped tip.

An image printed on a laser printer (I have also verified that it works with something printed on the office copier). I think anything that uses toner would work well. Make sure to horizontally flip the image before printing. Otherwise it will be backwards when we are done. I learned this the hard way.

Step 2: Transferring the Image

Tape an edge of the paper to your wood. This helps prevent it from moving around.

Now with the wood burner slowly go over all of the image. This may take some practice to get it good. Dont worry about burning the wood, the paper protects it from that. You can lift the corner and check your work slightly to see if the image is transferring well.

Using the Instructables Robot took me about 10 minutes.

Step 3: See Your Results

Now you can remove the paper. If you find that it stuck too well to the wood you can use a razor or knife the scrape off the paper bits left.

If it didn't come out as well as you liked you can sand it off and start again.