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Dye penetration depth

Dye penetration depth (post #169391)

ripmeister on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 09:36

Finishing

I'm currently on a project that will have a "rainbow" inlay. In order to create the bands of the rainbow and not use different species of wood I thought I'd simply use some trans tint to create the different bands of the rainbow. Question is how deep do these dyes penetrate? Since this is an inlay I'd like to dye the the bands individually and then do the glue up on a form to get the arc of the rainbow. Once inlaid however some flush sanding will need to be done. Can I get deep enough penetration of the dye so that I don't sand out the color? I'm doing this in white pine and my bands will be about 1/4 " deep by 3/16" wide. I was thinking I could create a series of colors and simply put the sticks in to soak up as much of the dye as possible. Your thoughts and advice would be appreciated.

I hate to state the obvious but (post #169391, reply #1 of 4)

by roc in reply to ripmeister [original] on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 18:32

Until I read >sticks in to soak up as much of the dye as possible<

I would have said it wouldn't hold up to sanding.

Submerging the sticks could be different.

So here is the obvious . . .

get some dye and experiment.

I am thinking that another wood than pine may be much better to take the dye. Maybe poplar or maple. I hope you get some more specific help.

roc

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. Abraham Lincoln ( 54° shaves )

Short of vacuum techniquesor (post #169391, reply #2 of 4)

by SteveSchoene in reply to ripmeister [original] on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 22:50

Short of vacuum techniquesor the like, I don't think you can count on getting sufficient penetration to avoid sand through problems. Dye penetration even with soaking may not be as deep as you might think. This is the sort of project where you might be better off seeking out commercially dyed veneer products that are dyed through the wood. Veneer thickness also offers some advantages in coping with wood movement issues that could crop up with 1/4" thick inlays.

Test your finish on scrap, FIRST, or risk having to scrap your finish.

Rainbow (post #169391, reply #3 of 4)

by Westchester in reply to SteveSchoene [original] on Thu, 12/01/2011 - 06:14

Since your using pine you're not too concerned about seeing the grain. Dyes are not good with pine. An alternative that might work is to bend and glue laminate the pieces - inlay, sand, wash seal entire surface - than with a fine artist brush - inpaint the strips or mask off with pin stripe tape and air brush acrylic paint - than top coat everything with a finish.

Rainbow inlay (post #169391, reply #4 of 4)

by ripmeister in reply to ripmeister [original] on Thu, 12/01/2011 - 08:42

Thanks for the comments. Sounds like I need to do some testing and probably go to plan B whatever that is. I did get a response back from Jeff Jewitt about this after going to his website and he said that short of the vaccum technique I could expect no more than 1/64 to 1/132 penetration depth.