Pallet Wood Song Sound Wave

by aCuriousCreator

9.7K20020

Intro: Pallet Wood Song Sound Wave

In this guide, I am going to show how I made this pallet wood song sound wave. It costs very little to make as it uses recycled pallet wood which can usually be found for free. It's a great addition to your home decor or an awesome gift for a friend.

For this you will need;

Pallet Wood

STEP 1: Cut & Sand

I started off by cutting down the pallet wood to size. I used an A4 label sheet so that is the largest I can print it the image. So I cut the wood just oversized at around 32cm long.

Then I sanded down the pallet board with my orbital sander. I started with 80 grit, and worked my way up to 240 grit so it was nice and smooth. I didn't want it perfectly smooth as I wanted to keep the rustic pallet look. But it needs to be quite smooth for the ink to sink into the wood.

STEP 2: Print, Print

I used a sheet of A4 labels and just removed all the labels. I put this into my printed the shiny side up. The glossy material on the paper stops any of the ink from drying meaning you can then transfer the image onto any other surface.

On the computer, I had flipped the image before printing so when it was transferred to the wood it would be facing the right way. I trimmed off the excess of the paper to make it slightly easier to work with and put some masking tape on one end. Then I stuck this down to the pallet wood and began to work the image onto the wood. I was very careful not to move the paper at all or this would have ruined the image. If this happens it's not the end of the world, just sand it back and start again.

STEP 3: Spray Finish

I used some spray polyurethane finish. It is important to use a spray finish, if you try to use a brush it will smudge the ink. I did a couple of layers of spray to add protection.

19 Comments

MarkP47 6 years ago

sorry if I'm being daft, but how did you capture the sound wave in Order to be able to print it? Is there a specific computer program?

sdavisrt 6 years ago

Not sure what program he used but Audacity is a great program to use to get the sound wave the you could use another program called dowce to capture the image. Both are free programs.

aCuriousCreator 6 years ago

Hi, yes opened the song up in Audacity, then took a screen shot and took it over to Photoshop. But there is loads of different programs you could use for it. Hope this helps.

ArtisanEclectic 3 years ago

I just read your article three times trying to find this info. I guess I should have read the comments first.

DylanD581 6 years ago

Great reclaimed wood project, and being a musician myself, I appreciate your song choices! In place of the label sheets, is there anything else that could be used to achieve the same effect, maybe something that is ready to use by itself (no peeling off labels, etc.)?

aCuriousCreator 6 years ago

Thanks! This one was actually for a customer, I used to sell them on Etsy but too busy at the moment! Really nice and easy to do. Something else that works really well is waxed paper, like the kitchen stuff. But in the UK it's actually really hard to find! And tiny bit more fiddly cutting it down to size, but I've actually used it to do it A3 size before and worked a treat! I usually actually use the labels for shipping as well, so not all wasteful :) glad you enjoyed it. If you have a go make sure to take a photo and post on here!

DylanD581 6 years ago

One more thing... what font did you use, and what size?

aCuriousCreator 6 years ago

Hi, from memory it was Bebas Neue. Cant remember the size, I just set up an A4 sheet in photoshop and measured the width of the pallet wood, and just played around until I got something that looked good.

DylanD581 6 years ago

I was thinking something along those lines. I intend to try it in the coming days, and I will absolutely share a photo.

earthlin9 6 years ago

Such a wonderful idea ;) thank you!

robindublin 6 years ago

I'm assuming you mean an inkjet printer.

aCuriousCreator 6 years ago

Hi, yes sorry has to be an Ink Jet printer, wont work with laser! Sorry will edit it to state that :)

mattcintosh 6 years ago

It might be possible with a laser. There is a lot of older lasers that people are just dumping. If you disable the fuser the printing will come out looking normal, but just blowing on the paper all the toner will come off. Might be able to carefully flip the paper over and use a hot iron to transfer the toner.

wenden_jason 6 years ago

Gonna make my own spin on this and laser engrave it :p

aCuriousCreator 6 years ago

That would be awesome. I just need to get a laser engraver first ;) Show us a photo when you do it!

brentlewis 6 years ago

Very good, I saw a report where they are doing the same thing but for Tattoos.

aCuriousCreator 6 years ago

Oh wow really! well If people really love the song then fair enough I suppose lol