Dye Another day #2: Glue line method

Interesting Martyn.
It will be great if you find a repeatable solution.
Neat problem. Thanks for working on it.

Steve

-- -- I'm no rocket surgeon

This is a really interesting series Martyn. Thank you for taking the time to try these methods and sharing them with us. They will be a great help to many of us and save us all a lot of time.

Sheila :)

-- Contributing Editor, Creative Woodworks and Crafts, Sheila Landry Designs http://www.sheilalandrydesigns.com "Knowledge is Power"

back to the drawing board

those capillaries in the softer woods
are like straws for the liquids

i know you will find the way
that does what you want

-- david - only thru kindness can this world be whole . If we don't succeed we run the risk of failure. Dan Quayle

Acrylic resin might be the clear plastic that glues. I’ve used it in the past and it is glass clear unless you pigment it…. not cloudy like epoxy. I’m interested in seeing where all this leads.

-- I just got done cutting three boards and all four of them were too short. (true story)

Your blogs are always interesting, and informative.
Your first try with a blade makes me wonder what difference you might obtain if you use a blade in a woodburner. I would expect this to seal up the cells a bit more, but I’ll have to leave it to you to try (I don’t have a woodburner).
Thanks again for sharing.

-- John, British Columbia, Canada

Interesting experiment Martyn.
I had better luck with urea formaldehyde glues when using aniline dyes.
Have a look at the last two segments of this blog.
There may be some bits you can pick out of it that will be useful to you.

-- Paul M ..............If God wanted us to have fiberglass boats he would have given us fiberglass trees. http://prmdesigns.com/

Martyn,
Very informative study on the application of dyes. I’ve also been experimenting with dyes, but more focused on obtaining a wide range of colors. Overall, I’ve been disappointed with my results.
My failures lead me to acrylic paints. In the past, I’ve always stayed away from painting wood, but the newer acrylics have quite interesting characteristics. Golden (manufactured here in NY, but I believe available worldwide) makes ‘fluid acrylic’ paints that comes in a wide range of colors and have a low viscosity. Liquitex makes an ‘acrylic ink’ that has the viscosity of water. To get a perfect straight edge I use masking tape as a border. I seal the edge of the masking tape with an acrylic gloss medium, which completely seals the edge and eliminates any bleed through across the edge. Another approach I’ve used is to route a groove along the border to cleanly separate the two regions.
Looking forward to your next set of experiments.
Roger

-- Roger Gaborski, http://www.gaborski.com, http://www.etsy.com/shop/RogerGaborski

Terry – I’m considering trying some clear cast resin I have from another project here. Thanks for the suggestion.

John – I’m unsure about using pyro based techniques as these themselves colour (burn) wood and would add an unwanted line or edge. Thank for suggesting though.

Paul – thanks for the info. It was interested to note, from your blog, that Aniline dyes can be dissolved in alcohol. Important as I’m trying to avoid the grain swell you get with a water based dye.

Roger – Very interesting possibility here, I will be investigating ‘Golden’ further as there are stockists in the UK.

Overall I will continue to investigate using the spirit based dye I have used so far in the short term as I am very pleased with the boldness of colour I’m getting (Roger’s point). In the longer term if I’m unsuccessful with this type of dye over the techniques I’ve so far used or can devise I will most likely investigate the other types; Aniline and Acrylic.

Thank you all for your valuable input.

-- Martyn -- Boxologist, Pattern Juggler and Candyman of the visually challenging. http://www.theartofboxes.com

i use CAL-TINTS
sold thru sherwin-williams
here in the states
they come in just about every color known
and can be mixed together for shades

the only thing i have not had them work with
is tompsons water seal (tried to use it on my house that way)

i also just use the little bottles of acrylic ‘hobby paints’
from wal-mart mixed with epoxy
cheap !

-- david - only thru kindness can this world be whole . If we don't succeed we run the risk of failure. Dan Quayle

I like that price, David!

Thanks for the suggestion.

I’ll have to have a chat to my confederate in Mole Party (Ross). He’s an artist who uses acrylics a lot in his work.

-- Martyn -- Boxologist, Pattern Juggler and Candyman of the visually challenging. http://www.theartofboxes.com