DIY Wooden Puzzles Made with xTool S1 {How to Use DTF Transfers on Wood}

[Kaysi]

DIY Wooden Puzzles Made with xTool S1 {How to Use DTF Transfers on Wood}

A couple weeks ago I was playing with AI generated Christmas pictures. I had an idea to turn some of our pictures into Christmas themed pictures and then put them onto our Christmas pajamas this year. I had so much fun creating the AI generated Christmas pictures that I just kept on making more and more of them. I just loved how they turned out. I ended up creating one with a really special picture of my parents and I knew that I wanted to do something with it that picture. I was racking my brain for ideas and one day my husband mentioned that one of his co-workers has an xTool and they like to make puzzles with them. I instantly knew that I wanted to turn the AI generated Christmas picture of my parents into a wooden puzzle. I love how it turned out and I can’t wait to make more wooden puzzles using my xTool S1!

Here is a quick video to show how I made these wooden puzzles using DTF transfers and my xTool S1.


This is how I made the DIY wooden puzzle.

The first thing I did was created some AI generated Christmas pictures using an app called AI Arta. I used pictures that I had and then used the AI selfies tab and the Let it Snow filter. Here is the one of my parents.

I then purchased some DTF transfers. To do this, I just uploaded the pictures on the company’s website. Usually I used Jiffy Shirts but since I came up with the idea to make these wooden puzzles with DTF transfers 3 days before Christmas, I had to go with a local company. They were awesome they were able to do same day printing, so I was able to make these up before Christmas! If you are local to the Tri-Cities, you should try them out! Here is the “gang sheet” that I got of the two pictures.

I cut the DTF transfers to size and then used a 3mm 12 x 12 basswood plywood.

I put the DTF transfer onto the wood and then used my heat press to put on the DTF transfer to the wood. I set the temperature to 300-320 degrees and pressed it for 15 seconds.

Once the wood was completely cooled, I then peeled off the plastic and pressed it again.

I used a heat press cover sheet and pressed the wood again. This time for only 5 seconds. Just to make sure I got everywhere, I pressed it a few times, rotating it each time.

Here are the DTF transfers on wood, don’t they look great?!

Now for the fun part, turning the wood into a puzzle! I place the wood into my xTool S1 and then using the pin point positioning system, I marked the area that I wanted to cut. I put the laser right where the picture started, I wanted the area to be the whole picture.

On XCS, I opened up a SVG file of a 100 piece puzzle template that I created. I did this by clicking on the image button and then clicking on the SVG file. I then sized the puzzle to be the same size as the picture on the wood. You can get the SVG cut file here:

100 Piece Puzzle Template

Usually for the cut settings, I just use material 3mm basswood plywood setting, but with the DTF transfer on the wood, I wanted it to be a little more powerful, so it would go through the picture and the wood (I tried it with the machine settings and it didn’t work super well). For the settings, I used this settings chart . Normally the settings to cut 3mm basswood with the 20W laser is 100/7/1 (power/speed/pass). Since I wanted it to be more powerful, I slowed it down just a bit and the settings I used were:

Power: 100

Speed: 6

Pass: 1

Here is the puzzle all cut out, isn’t it so cool???

Once the xTool was done cutting it, I immediately wanted to try to put it together. I was in awe the whole time by how well it turned out.

Here it is all put together! I love it. I printed out the picture and then found a cute box to put the puzzle into.

I loved the wooden puzzle so much, that I wanted to make one with a picture of my family. This one is a little smaller and not square. I used the same puzzle template as the other one, I just sized it to fit.

Doesn’t it look so good?! The xTool S1 doing amazing!

Here it is all put together!

I had a DTF transfer left over from our Christmas pajamas, so I figured I might was well make another wooden puzzle, because they are just so stinkin’ awesome! I can’t get enough of them.

And that’s it! Once I got everything figured out (machine settings and the puzzle template), they were super easy to make! They fit perfectly in these cute little boxes too.

Now they are ready to be given away and to be put together over and over again!

If you liked this idea, check out all the other cool crafts I have made with my xTool laser cutters!​

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