The trend of customizing wooden products is becoming more and more popular. The possibilities and ideas for creating cool designs on these products are endless.
But… did you know that it is also possible to customize wood with DTF? This technique is not only useful for textiles, it can be used for much more. In this post we will give you some customization ideas and show you in tutorial mode how to customize wood with DTF.
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What can I customize in wood with DTF?
As we said, there are a lot of products that you can create and customize with wood. So, before we show you how to customize wood with the DTF technique, we’re going to give you a few ideas in case you can’t think of anything.
Personalized Key Rings
The wooden key chains are the perfect product to give as a gift to someone who has just become independent or moved away from home. Because giving the typical metal or plastic keychain as a gift is no longer as nice as a wooden one with a vintage touch.
Offer your customers a keychain with a name, a phrase or even a photo. A souvenir to keep on hand at all times. Another idea that we give you from Brildor and that is very fashionable is the personalized keychain with a Spotify song.
So if you don’t know how to make personalized wooden keychains, throughout this post we will give you the keys to stamp them using the DTF technique.
Personalized Watches
The personalized wooden clocks are also another of the products that are in great demand nowadays. And what better way to see the time than in a souvenir, in a phrase that motivates you to continue the day or simply in a nice design, even if you are late somewhere.
Stamp a photo, a cool design or simply the hours in a beautiful and original way on wood with the DTF technique. Your customers will love this idea!
Photo on Wood
If your customers are looking to give a photo as a gift but want something original, other than the typical photo paper with a frame, you can offer to print the photo on a wooden panel.
The photo on wood is a more decorative alternative and you can also add a phrase or a date to make it even more special.
Personalized Notebooks
Currently it is very fashionable everything that has to do with vintage and ‘ecofriendly’, that is why the wooden notebooks are one of those products that join the demand.
So, you can present to all those who want to take care of the environment, a wooden notebook personalized with the name or with a motivational phrase.
Personalized Boxes
As you know, wooden boxes have multiple functions, for example, as a jewelry box or to store spices, teas, other products and personal souvenirs.
In addition, you can also create boxes to store wine. You would have to opt for one of those boxes in which the opening foil can be removed to personalize only that part with the DTF, a good way to give a bottle as a gift in a more elegant way.
So, if you are interested in knowing how to customize a wooden box, we explain it in point number 3.
Personalized Posters
For home decoration, posters with motivational phrases, those that say “sweet home” or personalized with a name to be placed in the room are very popular.
So, you can’t be left out. Offers wooden signs with the phrases that you like the most, that motivate you the most and the most beautiful to make their homes the most welcoming.
If you like the idea of personalized wooden signs and you don’t know how to make them, you will see in this post that DTF offers you some advantages when it comes to customization.
What do I need to customize wood with DTF
To be able to make customizations on wood using the DTF technique, you will need to have the following:
- Customizable wooden product
- DTF printer: In order to print the design we want to stamp on the wood, an inkjet printer properly modified for DTF is needed.
- DTF Adhesive Powder: To make the design adhere to the surface it is necessary to use DTF Adhesive Powder. This creates an adhesive layer over the wet ink.
- Transfer Plate: It is essential to have a transfer plate to be able to cure the design. Brildor recommends the use of a plate with a vertical lowering top plate to achieve the perfect curing of the film.
At Brildor we offer you the DTF transfer printing system. A cost saving pack that includes, apart from the printer, the adhesive powder, inks, film and software included. It is the perfect pack to get you started in this personalization technique.
How wood is customized with DTF
Now, if we already have everything we need to be able to customize the wooden product we want, we will have to follow the next steps:
- Print the design on the film with the DTF printer. Be careful because the inks are wet! In addition, you will need to print with a white base or the colors you are printing should be darker than the wood.
- Sprinkle the DTF powders over the printed design making sure to go over the entire design.
- Curing: It is necessary to use a transfer plate or an oven to cure the powder so that the adhesive layer is formed.
- Ironing on wood: Once the previous steps have been carried out, we will have to iron at a temperature of 165º for 20 seconds with a medium-high pressure.
- Allow to cool and peel or discard the film. Always slowly and carefully!
But this is not all. We give you a trick to make your personalization look much better. In order to avoid having to perfectly square the design, we recommend that you print with dimensions larger than the wood. You would then have to cut off the excess using a cutter.
These parameters and this trick work with any wooden product, whether it is a key ring, a panel, a notebook or a box. So… try it!
Differences between customizing wood with DTF and other techniques
To customize a wooden product, there is not only the DTF technique, but it can also be done with other techniques such as sublimation, UV technique or vinyls.
And you may ask, what difference does it make in customization if you use one technique or the other? We explain:
- Sublimation: To work with this technique it is necessary to carry out a previous treatment on the wood, a coating, since wood cannot be sublimated. However, with DTF there is no need to pre-treat the wood.
- Adhesive vinyl: Personalizing wood with vinyl is very simple, but you will have to cut the outline of the design with a cutting plotter. With the DTF, on the other hand, this is not necessary, since the printed design is already transferred directly.
- UV: It is true that working on wood with the UV technique is very simple because it is printed directly on the product. It also has the option of white ink and, in addition, curing is done directly with the lamp. However, a UV printer is a much higher investment than a DTF printer.
Now you know one more method to customize the wood and as you have been able to see it is done in a very simple way. There is no mystery. Offer your customers original and always fashionable products.
If you have any questions or if we have left anything out, leave us a comment so we can help you. You can also contact our Customer Service department.
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