Hoping to get some help with printed stir sticks. I looked on the board and found this post from last year, but not finite results or materials that anyone use, so I was wanting to see if anyone’s done this since, or could offer any advice.
Have clients asking, and also personally wanting to offer this service. I’ve thought about having the sheets UV printed with the logos/monograms/etc with a slight bleed, but not sure if they would line up in the Glowforge perfectly to cut. I’ve seen a lot of people mentioning stickers, but I’m wanting something waterproof, and reusable similar to the website below.
There are three different files for stir sticks in the catalog. None of them are printed or require adhering one product to acrylic (stickers/veneer), but the cut words might be a place to start.
You have the right idea. You could print your designs on the material with a bleed and then cut out the shapes, you will need to make a jig and place it consistently into the glowforge. There are lots of posts on making and setting up jigs.
I’ve been trying to do the same thing for a few months now and it’s still not perfect. I designed the sticks in silhouette studio because that’s the program I use. I then cut them out of acrylic using my Glowforge. In step two, I print the images on sublimation paper and then cut them out with my Silhouette Cameo. Lastly, I sublimate the images onto the stir sticks with my heat press. My issue is that the image is translucent and the colors only appear bold when it’s either painted white on the back or if the acrylic is lying flat on a surface. I’m not able to get bold colors on both sides. I actually ordered some from another seller to see if I could figure out the process but no luck. it almost looks like they used a double-side print and decoupaged it to the acrylic but I doubt it’s that complicated. If I find out anything else I will share it and please do the same if you are able to figure it out.
Tans for the information! Can you send a photo of what you mean for the image being translucent? I’m not familiar with the sublimation in the sense that I’ve not done it yet, but I just ordered a sublimation printer and am in the process of ordering a heat press.
Here are two photos of the stir stick after it’s been sublimated. Translucent means that light passes through it so it’s se through as opposed to something that is solid where light does not pass through it. So when I have the stir stick up against a white surface it looks great but when you hold it up it’s see through. The stir stick with the bush in the blue and white pot is one that I’ve purchased and it is clear that oneside is a type of printed paper. It seems as if it’s been printed in mirror image so that the front image and the back image line up. Does that make sense?
Ohhh yes, now I understand what you mean. I think it’s because they’re doing UV printing, which would be great if they weren’t $15k lol There are places here in Dallas that will print on acrylic for me and then I can cut but I’m afraid it won’t line up as accurately in the glowforge because you’d have masking tape on top. Whereas they can cut, lay in the UV print bed and move the images around just like we can on the Glowforge. Or maybe there’s a whole different process they use
lol There are places here in Dallas that will print on acrylic for me and then I can cut but I’m afraid it won’t line up as accurately in the glowforge because you’d have masking tape on top. Whereas they can cut, lay in the UV print bed and move the images around just like we can on the Glowforge. Or maybe there’s a whole different process they use