Sublimation On Wood Photo Panels
As a way of decorating your home with your favorite memories, or for preparing photographs for a gallery, ChromaLuxe wood photo panels are a worthy option. Built with natural maple wood, these panels offer a clear gloss front that’s been coated for sublimation. This means that any image transferred onto these panels will appear with a near vintage look that suits well for cozy rooms and stylistic gallery walls.
First, prepare your image within the dimensions of the panel, but at a quarter inch larger in both width and height. Having this extra bleed will help make lining up the transfer and panel easier, reducing the chances of image clipping as a result. Once your image is ready, print it through your sublimation printer. If you’re using a Sawgrass printer, send it to Sawgrass Print Manager with these settings: Substrate set to Polyester, Paper set to the appropriate profile, the Mirror option checked, and in the Color tab, set the Color Mode to Photographic or Vivid depending on the detail of your image. With all these set, go ahead and click Print on SPM.
Now that our print’s ready, it’s time to sublimate it on a panel. For ChromaLuxe wood photo panels, your heat press will need to be set to 120 seconds at 400 degrees Fahrenheit with medium pressure. As these photo panels are one of the more thick items, application will work best on a swing away machine, though can work on a clamshell heat press with a floating heating element. If your machine has a removable silicone pad on the lower platen, you can better fine tune its pressure by replacing it with a sheet of parchment paper, then adjusting accordingly with a blank panel before powering the machine on.
But once your machine is at temperature, cover the lower platen with a sheet of parchment paper, then place your transfer and panel on top. Remove the protective film on the panel, then flip your panel facing towards the transfer and attach the two with either heat tape or adhesive spray. Before attaching, be sure that the mounting holes on the panel’s back side are at the same orientation as your image. Not doing so will result in an upside down image on your panel when hanged. And if you’re using adhesive spray on your transfer, remember to do so away from your heat press. Once you’ve attached the panel to the transfer, flip it so the transfer side faces up, cover it with parchment paper, and press.
Once the time reaches zero, open your machine and give your panel a moment to cool down. After it’s cooled down, quickly peel your transfer off and your wood photo panel has now been customized! For any questions, you can always get in touch with our MyExpert representatives at support.heatpressnation.com
