Printing to cheap wood to make it look like exotic wood....

[Andy D]

I don't know why these weird ideas pop into my head..

I have been having to buy expensive wood for a personal project..
and I just started wondering how it would look if I were to direct print to a cheap wood
plank like pine or poplar to give it the graining and color of an expensive exotic wood.
I think printing to a real wood would make it more realistic, and the way UV ink has a raised texture
would help too. I imagine you could do some kind thick clear finish to it too..

Probably nothing I will ever get around to trying, just wondering if anybody has tried this?
If not, you think it would look right?

 

[neil_se]

Check this out, a joinery near me prints timber patterns regularly
http://www.rawinkk.com.au/gallery/recent-projects

[video=youtube;4lOtjj_v9nc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOtjj_v9nc[/video]

 

[Andy D]

I think if you played around with it you could come up with some cool effects.

I've been playing around with printing to 1/4" birch (I think it was birch... started tinkering a few months back then got busy) and it prints beautifully.

I was printing pictures mind you but the ink creates really neat effects mixed with the grain.

Not really on topic (dang I'm hijacking my own thread) But I just thought of this, it's where I used to work, I always liked how it printed....

 

[signmeup]

This sign is HDU that I "grained" with a fat brush and some runny brown paint. The panel was a pastel mustardy colour base coat. The black lettering is V carved.

Adrian

 

[DigitalWoodGFX]

This is actually something we do on a regular basis. I run a couple of flatbed printers in a millworks factory. A lot of the jobs we do call for expensive or exotic woods, so we print on veneer, MDF, birch, or other cheap wood we have readily available. As long as the scans/photos of the wood we're printing are high enough quality, they look awesome.