a gift idea

[TEK]

I've turned some freedom pens and love the program. For people in the service that I know personally, I came up with another idea. I turn a platter. I then print the logo for their branch of the service on Avery full page clear label stock, with the image sized to fit the flat part of the platter. Cut out the image and apply it to the platter. I've tried a few finishes over the images. Sprayed finishes seem to work the best, although General Finishes, Salad Bowl Finish, wiped on didn't smear the ink and worked well. Currently I'm using semigloss Deft Spray Laquer. The label lets the wood grain show through. The areas that are usually white are clear and the colored parts let some wood grain show through also. I suppose if you were printing these logos for sale you might run into copywrite problems. The first one I did was for my son. He is a US Marine. I've also done them for Army, Navy and Airforce members. I've only been turning for a year now. What I don't have in skill I have to make up in ingenuity. I hope you like my Idea.
Tom

 

[woodwish]

Nice, very nice! I would be honored to have recieved one of those. beautiful idea!

 

[PapaDoc]

That is a great idea for our troops and vets. Thanks.

 

[Steve Worcester]

Killer idea.

I am sure that there are other places where this technique would work well also.

 

[jimr]

No copywrite problems

Tom, I sent you an email on your platter but I thought I would let you and everyone know. I have found out the military and all government emblems are in the public domain so there are no copywrite problems.
Your platter is great.

 

[Fred in NC]

Other uses

Steve, sure I can think of a few uses. Pen boxes and pen stands with an emblem, logo, name, etc.

 

[Bob M]

Source of emblems?

Can you please tell everyone where to find the emblems? Did you use something like Photoshop to resize it?

 

[William Young]

Great idea Tom and very nicely done.
One idea that you may or may not have tried for finish would be a tripple glaze spray sold at craft stores or Walmart etc. available in satin, semi gloss or high gloss. I use that when making scrollsawed puzzles out of photographs on inkjet photo paper that is glued onto the wood because it makes a very durable finish and it does not affect coloring and does not let colors run together. It dries in a minute or so.
W.Y.

 

[TEK]

resizing and logos

I use a couple of programs. If I have to clean up or manipulate an Image I use Adobe Photoshop Elements. It has most of the features of Adobe Photoshop but is a fraction of the cost.
For all of my photo and image printing I use Q-Image. I've used it for 2 or 3 years now. I find it pretty simple to use. I love the print quality and their online help and tutorial are pretty good. They have a free limited demo version. If you buy the full version you get free updates for life. Here is link to their website for those of you that are interested. http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

The logos I picked up from web image searches, Google, Altavista, Yahoo, and maybe some others. I picked the best looking and highest resolution logos I could find. I would still like to find a better Marine Logo than the ones I have. If anyone has a really good Marine Logo could you pass it on.

I print out a test image on plain paper. I cut out the logo on the test image and check to see how it fits the platter. If I like the fit I print it on the clear label stock. The clear labels are a lot more expensive that plain paper, so I try to work out my mistakes before I print on it. I select matte photo paper in my printer preferences for my final print.
I did a lot of trial and error to work this out. My errors were a real trial! The first project I used the labels on wasn't a tuning project it was a wooden puzzle for my niece. I tried the Iron on t-shirt transfers first, but they raised the grain of the wood and wrinkled. I'm pretty happy with how this works now. I do get a faint line in the label where the seam in the backing paper is. I haven't figured out how to get rid of that. If you don't know it's there most people won't notice it.
Tom

 

[TEK]

Thanks

Great idea Tom and very nicely done.
One idea that you may or may not have tried for finish would be a tripple glaze spray sold at craft stores or Walmart etc. available in satin, semi gloss or high gloss. I use that when making scrollsawed puzzles out of photographs on inkjet photo paper that is glued onto the wood because it makes a very durable finish and it does not affect coloring and does not let colors run together. It dries in a minute or so.
W.Y.

I'll try to find some and give it a try!

 

[TEK]

My latest in the series

This is not military, but a nice gift anyway. I don't think that Michigan would look right on one of these. My hands would probably burst into flames putting a Michigan Logo on!