Anyone turned colored wood?

[Lanietheberner]

I was wonder about using some water based dye's too color some pieces for a segmented project and I have never used any of these dye's so I was wondering a few things:

1. How deep does the dye penetrate - will it go into the wood 1/2" deep ?

2. How much does it alter the grain structure (I was thinking about dying a whole board and cutting my components verse dying the individual pieces) or should I just dye the pieces rough and then worry about the dye going through the pieces?

Thanks!

 

[john lucas]

It will not penetrate any at all. 1/16" if your lucky. I have tried soaking thin pieces with black shoe dye and had some success but these were only 1/8" thick and soaked for days using a vacuum pump.

 

[Gil Jones]

I recall reading of dye (or maybe food coloring??) being applied to the earth around living trees and the resulting harvested wood was the color of that dye.
Seems like a lot of time would be expended coloring wood that way.

 

[Dave Jenkins]

vacuum

what about a vacuum bag for storing in the freezer.


marinates chicken better....

does any one know how much pressure is involved in press tr lumber?

water and alchohol based products usually raise the grain.

does raised grain provide more glueing surfaces? or create glue gaps.

sanding after dyeing all of the pieces could take time.

sorry if i raised more questions than answered.....

dj

 

[MichaelMouse]

I was wonder about using some water based dye's too color some pieces for a segmented project and I have never used any of these dye's so I was wondering a few things:

1. How deep does the dye penetrate - will it go into the wood 1/2" deep ?

2. How much does it alter the grain structure (I was thinking about dying a whole board and cutting my components verse dying the individual pieces) or should I just dye the pieces rough and then worry about the dye going through the pieces?

It might after a few months worth of soaking under normal atmospheric conditions. Pressure treating and vacuum treating amount to the the same thing, so you can help your case by increasing the pressure the liquid puts on the outside or decreasing the pressure inside the wood. Warming is a good place to start. Evolves contained air to make room and makes the outside liquid more active as well. I like the microwave to heat the wood.

Not going to do much at all to the physical properties of the wood. It's just a "cycle" from saturation to dry again. Might set the fiber a bit.

Dye the pieces. Try to start as small as possible, so you won't cut through the dyed area as quickly. As mentioned, you may have some trouble with color spread as you sand.

 

[Dale Miner]

There is a fellow in our club that did a larger segmented vessel from pre dyed wood. He used the vacuum/pressure method with several iterations. The wood was colored through. He gave a brief run through during the show and tell of the piece. I can't recall the particulars, but I do seem to remember that he used poplar. I also think he used alchohol based dye, although it seems the alchohol might boil under vacuum and be a problem for the vacuum pump.

http://www.ovwg.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2803

 

[Joe Greiner]

I'd consider applying dye to the END grain, with vacuum at the other end. And maybe a warm environment. Some recent (past 10 years or so) patents have been issued for rapid drying this way (without the dye, of course). For quickest operation, it would be better to use almost-final-length segments, instead of full-length boards.

For bulk production, assemble gangs of segments vertically, with a dye reservoir at the top, and the suction seal at the bottom. For odd-shaped seals and moderate vacuum, modeling clay (plasticene) is excellent, and LEGO blocks make a fine adjustable-size chamber. Some of the dye would seep between the segments, but so what?

You'll need to re-dry the wood, and careful nuking should be most effective. Or just wait a while.

Vacuum chucking seems to be the soup du jour, and this could provide an excuse for building the apparatus - in effect kill two birds with one stone.