# There has to be a better way to transfer designs to wood...



## zm15 (Feb 9, 2014)

I've been experimenting with creating small letter carving using very small bits and a dremel with a router base.

The biggest problem I've ran into is how to get the design onto the wood piece to trace carve it.

I've tried graphite paper, citrasolv and laser printed design, carbon paper, etc..

The best result I've had that works very good, is using a laser printer to print the design on clear contact paper. This provides a stickback paper i can place directly on the wood and rout the design. Works almost perfectly….except. When I peel off the contact paper, it leaves a gum like residue. I can rub it off, and sanding helps, but it's not great. The contact paper also get's wrapped around the tip of my router bits after awhile.

Here's a few pictures of the process with a recent project.










Is there a better way to accurately transfer a design to wood for routing?


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

Steve Ramsey from Woodworking for Mere Mortals has this method that might work well and definitely wouldn't leave any residue. Transfer the design, rout, and sand. Don't know how well it would work on really open grained wood like that red oak, but might be worth a try.


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## 7Footer (Jan 24, 2013)

^ +1 … I've been experimenting with that method a lot lately, it works very well, but JayT is right, on open grain wood like red oak it doesn't make a super clean transfer, on oak it actually works better on the end grain than it does on the long or side grain.

Another thing you could try is print your mirrored image from a laser printer, and use an iron (heat transfer) to get your image onto the wood, but again the open grain in oak makes it more difficult to get a super clean transfer.

Also fluid medium and gel medium work well, but it also leaves a film, and although the film sands off relatively easy, it seems like you would need to out some wax on it or the router might not want to move across the wood smoothly… Mediums add quite a bit of time as well.

Great job on that project btw, very clean.


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## zm15 (Feb 9, 2014)

Thanks guys. I have tried something very similar to that technique, printing on wax paper.

What I've found is that for the small text, it smears quite easily and it's hard to get an accurate transfer for letters. I can definitely see it working well for pictures or something where being just a tad off is ok.

I do need to try it with other types of wood for sure.

Is poplar a good wood for engravings such as these? Does it finish well?


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## JAAune (Jan 22, 2012)

Another option is to print out the pattern on heavy weight paper and cut it out with a knife to make a stencil. Laying the stencil down then giving the piece a light dusting with spray paint to mark out the lettering should suffice.

Another possibility is to make yourself a pantograph.


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## zm15 (Feb 9, 2014)

Another good option with the stencil. And the pantograph is something I've been looking at too.

Although I don't have one, creating a template with a scroll saw is another option i've considered to trace the outside. But yes, this would add some considerable work.


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## 7Footer (Jan 24, 2013)

Yeah agreed, the hardest part I find is getting it lined up perfectly and not moving it at all to avoid smearing. Sounds like you've done it already, wax paper is pretty much the same thing as whats under those pieces of paper in Steve's method.

Personally I really like the way poplar looks with just a clear finish like spray lacquer, especially when there is a lot of the green in it, I make beer carriers out of poplar and they finish well, but I'm only applying spray lacquer and nothing else, I've heard it can get blotchy if you stain it or use certain oils. I've also heard somewhere that milk paint looks pretty nice on it too… But everyone says poplar is better suited for paint. There are a few other threads about poplar and I just saw some cabinets that LJ MT_Stringer made that are absolutely beautiful, there might be some other finishing tips in those threads.


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## JAAune (Jan 22, 2012)

If you do this work a lot, it's small scale and you're making money on it, a small CNC device with a pen or a laser engraver are excellent options. Those are the two methods I use for making patterns. I've linked to a simple homemade device below. Inexpensive kits also exist. Just replace the spindle with a pen.

Simple Homemade Desktop CNC

Here's the link to a post I made earlier showing how I draw patterns on the CNC.

CNC Techniques for Building Furniture

Here's an affordable kit.

Shapepoko 2 CNC Kit


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## Ripthorn (Mar 24, 2010)

I usually take the outline printed on regular paper, spray adhesive it on, cut the lines with an exacto knife, then remove it all. The residue comes off easily and completely with naphtha. Of course, this is mostly for guitar inlay and such, and larger designs like yours would take a long time to cut with an exacto knife.


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## Underdog (Oct 29, 2012)

Ok… I don't see the point of transferring ink to the wood with a CNC router when you could just route the silly sign with it…


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## TheFridge (May 1, 2014)

I use mineral spirits to take the residue from stickers off oak veneered plywood with no marks.


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## JAAune (Jan 22, 2012)

You could but I don't trust the rigidity of the flimsy CNC devices like the one in that Instructables site.

The Shapepoko would be capable of actual routing.


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## johnstoneb (Jun 14, 2012)

I use lacquer thinner and takes the residue off leaves nothing behind.


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## zm15 (Feb 9, 2014)

That looks like a super slick CNC machine there, that would do the job nicely I would think. Something to save for.

Good call on the mineral spirits and lacquer thinner, I'll give that a shot.


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## Yonak (Mar 27, 2014)

I've had good luck printing a template and sticking it to the wood with spray adhesive, then routing and sanding straight through the paper. I use mineral spirits to remove any residue, if I happen to apply too much glue.

The Dremel and sander tend to turn up the edges of the paper if cutting in an upward direction but pushing it back down in place is not a problem with ether a finger or the tool.


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## zm15 (Feb 9, 2014)

Yonak, just curious, do you spray the wood first and lay down the paper? Or spray the paper first to only get adhesive where the paper touches the wood?


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## j_dubb (Jun 13, 2013)

I use the laserjet method as well and haven't had much trouble using acetone to transfer the image - obviously the lighter the wood the better.


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## Yonak (Mar 27, 2014)

Zach, I spray the paper.


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## rfulford (Jun 5, 2014)

Cut adhesive vinyl that is used in sign making would be a good option I think. Just be sure to have the vinyl reverse weeded so you get the void and not just the letters. You can have almost any sign shop cut this stuff for you but the expense might be overwhelming if you do a lot. If you know a hobbyist with a cri-cut, it would be alot cheaper. the plus side is that the vinyl also makes a good paint mask.


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## zm15 (Feb 9, 2014)

rfulford, that cri-cut printer looks fascinating. I haven't seen one of those before.

Can you print on any vinyl with that? or does it have to be a special kind they sell?


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## zm15 (Feb 9, 2014)

After looking at that cricut a bit more, would a vinyl like that clog up the end of a router bit? I know my contact paper heats up and balls up on the spiral parts of the bit.


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## rfulford (Jun 5, 2014)

Zach,
Its a cutting plotter only. It does not print. They are pretty common with the scrap booking crowd if you know anyone thats into that. Its sort of a consumer version of the vinyl plotters we use in the sign business.


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## zm15 (Feb 9, 2014)

Sorry, i meant after the vinyl has been plotted and applied to the wood, and the bits cut through the vinyl. Curious if the vinyl causes problems with router bits.


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

I was told that if you reverse print what you want with a laser printer you could Iron it on with a household iron.Perhaps you might not need to reverse print it I would think it would be pretty inexpensive to do a trial run on scrap and therefore there would be no harm done, if it doesn't work either. Alistair


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## mantwi (Mar 17, 2013)

I see all the suggestions here involve either using some form of adhesive or a big cash outlay to accomplish a simple task. Why not use the old tried and true method called poncing? A old guy I worked with about 35 years ago showed me how to do this and it works quite well. You need an outline of the pattern that can be perforated, you need a ponce wheel to do the perforating and some powdered charcoal although the chalk used in chalk lines would work just as well. This is an old technique and that always intrigues me, it is stone simple and the great thing is the same pattern can be used over and over. Rather than tell you the details I am including two links, one to an article on the technique and another to a place to purchase the items needed for this method. 
http://guitargarage.blogspot.com/2012/12/transferring-design-from-paper-to-wood.html
http://www.amazon.com/Excel-Hobby-Blade-Corp-30606/dp/B0006O5K5A


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## InstantSiv (Jan 12, 2014)

I've cut through vinyl with a router and did not notice any side effects.


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## zm15 (Feb 9, 2014)

I haven't heard of the Ponce method, another good way to transfer. Thanks for sharing that!


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