Can You 3D Print Wood Without Using Plastic Fillers?

Most of us know wood 3D printing through wood-infused filaments. These are typically PLA plastic mixed with fine wood particles (often ~20-40% wood fiber by volume). The filament extrudes like normal PLA using FDM 3D printing, but the embedded wood gives prints a grainy wood-like appearance and even aroma. 

Upside Parts - 3D Print Wood

Finished parts can be sanded, stained, or painted much like real wood. However, it’s important to remember that these are composite prints, so the wood bits are suspended in a plastic matrix, not a solid piece of wood.

Existing 3D Print Wood Options Using FDM

Despite the appealing look, wood-filled PLA usually isn’t as strong as pure plastic. The wood fibers interrupt the polymer’s continuity, so parts tend to be more brittle and lower in tensile strength than regular PLA. For instance, one study found that increasing wood content to 50% in a PLA composite reduced its tensile strength by about 58% (Sultana, J., Rahman, M.M., Wang, Y. et al. Influences of 3D printing parameters on the mechanical properties of wood PLA filament: an experimental analysis by Taguchi method. Prog Addit Manuf 9, 1239–1251 (2024)).

Interestingly, wood filaments unlock some creative tricks. Because the wood powder can char when heated, you can vary print temperature to produce different color tones in the same print. Researchers have dubbed this technique “3D printed pyrography” (Moon et al. – 3D Printed Pyrography: Using Wood Filament and Dynamic Nozzle Temperature for Shades of Color (Additive Manufacturing, 2024)). By dynamically modulating the nozzle temperature, they achieved 16 discrete shades of brown in wood-PLA prints without any stains or multiple filaments. This allows printing built-in images or gradients, essentially “burning” patterns into the object as it’s extruded. It’s a clever way to add realistic woodgrain effects or even artwork onto 3D print wood items using just a single wood filament and a standard FDM printer.

Direct Ink Writing for Wood 3D Printing

While wood-filled filaments are convenient, they’re still mostly plastic. What if we could 3D print actual wood? Recent scientific advances from Rice University are pushing in that direction by using the fundamental components of wood – cellulose and lignin – as the printing material instead of a plastic binder. Cellulose (the fibrous reinforcement in wood) and lignin (the natural “glue” holding wood fibers together) can be extracted from wood waste and reconstituted into a 3D-printable form.

The technique, known as direct ink writing (DIW), extrudes a paste-like ink made of wood derivatives. Unlike earlier attempts that simply mixed sawdust into resins or polymers (yielding just wood–plastic composites), this new approach prints 100% wood-based material with no synthetic additives.

Researchers at Rice University demonstrated a breakthrough in 2024 by formulating a water-based ink of lignin and cellulose for DIW printing. The ink composition was tuned to mirror natural wood (about 25% lignin, 70% cellulose compounds), which gave it the right flow characteristics for extrusion. After printing their designs layer by layer at room temperature, the team heat-treated the printed pieces to “set” the wood. As a result, the 3D-printed wood objects closely resembled natural wood in look, texture, and even smell.

Binder Jetting with Wood Waste for 3D Printing Wood

Binder jet wood 3D printing using wood powder is another branch of additive manufacturing for bringing wood into production. In binder jetting, a printer spreads a thin layer of powder and selectively deposits a liquid binder to glue the particles in the desired pattern. 

Traditionally used for metals or sand, this technology was adapted for wood by a startup called Forust (a subsidiary of Desktop Metal) in 2021. The Forust process replaces metal powder with sawdust (wood powder) and uses a special “bio-epoxy” resin as the binder. Layer by layer, the printer glues together waste sawdust and lignin into a solid object. After printing, the object is cured and infused with additional resin if needed, resulting in a fully wooden part made from upcycled wood waste.

What makes the process of 3D printing wood exciting is the quality of the output. Forust’s printed wood looks indistinguishable from traditionally machined wood. The company notes that their parts are isotropic and high-strength, meaning they don’t suffer from weak grain direction like natural wood. In other words, a Forust piece is strong in all directions (thanks to the binder reinforcement and printed layer structure), yet it feels and works like real wood. 

The binder jet approach also allows complex wooden geometries that would be difficult to carve or mold conventionally. Because objects are built layer by layer without supports, designers can create intricate lattice structures, internal channels, or biomorphic shapes in wood that were previously impractical. 

Practical Aspects of Wood 3D Printing

Wood 3D printing has advanced far beyond simply mixing wood flour into PLA filament. If you need to 3D print wood, wood-filled filaments remain an accessible way to achieve wooden aesthetics on FDM printers.

At the same time, scientists are devising inks made of pure wood components to print genuine wood parts with the texture and performance of natural timber. And at the industrial level, for the process of 3D printing wood companies are deploying high-speed printers to fuse sawdust into beautiful, functional wood objects. 

If you require any assistance with 3D printing, our team supports clients with 3D printing service in Boston and beyond and will be happy to assist you with advising the best material and technology to succeed in your project.