finishing question

[cjrolke]

well i have come maple that i want to turn a different color.

has anyone tried rit clothing dye??

good experiences? or bad? anything to look for ?

i figure it will either give me more ideas of a piece of firewood

[Kendemp]

I'll be interested to see what comes of this. I have the same question for the mystery wood I posted a few weeks ago.

You might want to try it in "around the shop" if you don't get something here.

I was thinking of the Rit because I remember seeing it in the grocery stores as a kid, but my wife says she doesn't think that they carry it.

My other thought was analine dye, which seems to be inexpensive, but I would have to order it over the net.

Let's wait and see what comes up.

Ken

[cjrolke]

i will try to go buy some rit dye tonight

what got me thinking about it is this

http://www.woodturner.org/photopost/...cat=500&page=3

[DickLaxt 2]

Holler at Quartlow,he has done some wood dye work,infact I think he did mention rit Dye somewhere along the trail.

Dickie
A joker in the deck of life

[Kendemp]

Wow! That is very cool. I was looking at it to jazz up some wood with a rather bland appearance.

My first thought was why would you want to do that to box elder. But it does give it a very nice effect. Also nice with the natural wood inside.

Ken

Edit: It does say he used fabric dye. Did you notice that some guy named cjrolke posted a question to the turner about the dye??? What a coincedence!

[Sonny Edmonds]

Chris,
My Neice wanted purple for a pen color. So I went to Lowe's and had one of their custom colors mixed up for my shop.
I think it cost 6-7 bucks for the quart of base, and the coloring was free. It's a waterbased wood stain.
I could only get it in a quart or larger.
So....
I figure I have enough purple stain to last till my Grandson's Grandson opens the can and sez, "Well, that chit sure lasted a long time!"
Takes but a few drops to do a pen blank with it. :( :P
Never tried rit yet.
But these are maple, with that wildberry stain on them. ;)
http://home.earthlink.net/~sonnypie/...la_series2.jpg

:D

[link:www.sonnyedmonds.com | Sonny Edmonds] http://home.earthlink.net/~sonnypie/vortex_smiley.gif
"Precision Firewood Specialist"
God Bless America !
One Nation Under God!

[h3]The real problem is the fool behind the tool.[/h3] :o*
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[Bob A]

Sonny, those are nice. Did you apply the stain with the blanks still on the lathe? Lathe running? Did you have to wait a certain amount of time to put a CA finish on them? I've got a couple of maple burl blanks I've been ignoring that I'd like to try this on.

I hadn't even considered dying/staining any turnings until I saw that vase that Chris posted and these pens. This is the kinda knowledge that keeps me coming back here.

Bob

Edited because I always think I get it right the first time and don't preview my posts.:)

[Bob A]

Wow, who'd a thunk it? Fabric dye. Nice find Chris. I'm eager to hear about your experimenting with this.

Bob

[Sonny Edmonds]

Bob,
Thanks.
Yep, I do as much as I possibly can with two lathes.
After cutting the stock I want from board stock, I also cut it to nearly the length of the tube to be used and mark the center cut section to keep it indexed through my steps. I usually make batches of 10.
I take the raw blanks to my Midi lathe for drilling. The index mark lands on jaw 1, mating end facing the drill in the tailstock. Poke the hole and on to the other half, same-o same-o. Until all the blanks are drilled.
Then I rough the tubes from the 10 kits for gluing, glove up, and glue all 20 blanks keeping them in order.
Cleaning and milling next. Cordless drill, 1/4" bit, ream them all through and through. Milling is back to the midi and the mill is hand fed while the chuck drives the blanks. (not always, but usually)
So all the blanks are glued, bores clean, and reamed square.
Off to the turning and finishing. The blanks are mounted with the parted center aligned and turned.
Then I start cheating dramatically! I use various air grinders for my sanding steps from rough shaping to 220 ROS smoothing.
If to stain, that's when I do it with a small acid or glue brush at 100 RPM. Let it soak for a minute or two, keeping it wet if it sucks it in. Wipe it down with the grain or whatever way works for the blank.
Then let it dry for at least an hour with air drawn over it and slow turning.
When it's dry, fine sanding to flatten the grain and into the finer sanding. I usually apply thin CA to the blanks (stained or not) at a low RPM with my DC drawning the fumes away. Then sand to 3600 grit and apply pure caranuba wax at high speed. (Sometimes lately I have been experimenting with sanding to 12,000 grit)
Either way, I can achieve a glass like appearance.
The caranuba over the CA makes for a very impurvious surface to human gripping. A quick wipe with a clean cloth seems to refresh the surface to a high gloss.

I've also played with some other stains a little. But my real passion is to let the wood speak for itself. Who am I to change what time wrote there? ;)

:D

[link:www.sonnyedmonds.com | Sonny Edmonds] http://home.earthlink.net/~sonnypie/vortex_smiley.gif
"Precision Firewood Specialist"
God Bless America !
One Nation Under God!

[h3]The real problem is the fool behind the tool.[/h3] :o*
http://home.earthlink.net/~sonnypie/dumfart.jpg

[Don Butler]

Me too!

I use black Rit fabric dye to ebonize almost any species and it works well. A friend who makes violins and bows uses it too. If you use water as the vehicle it will raise the grain, so it's good to allow it to stain deeply so you don't sand through the color.
My friend uses alcohol as solvent and says it penetrates well without so much grain raising.
Yes, grocery stores still carry it. Look in the laundry area where the stock detergents and bleaches.
Regards,

Don

Septuagenarian living and working in a 200 year old house in NW Pennsylvania.