Dye wood blanks all the way through?

[leehljp]

I am not quite ready for what I am asking but I usually plan months ahead of a new project. (I'm still working on getting my shop changed around and set up.)

My Question: Has anyone dyed wood blanks (such as holly, or maple or other) all the way through? How can that be accomplished? I tried pressure and I tried vacuum in the past. It only dyes the surface area. I need more than surface color. (I want to dye some blanks that will go all the way through: Dark blue, some blanks midnight blue, some black and some red.)

BACKGROUND: Back when I was in Japan and had my pressure pot, I took some 1/8" balsa, and both bamboo and wood tooth picks and experimented. I put several tooth picks and several pieces of balsa about 1" by 2" into some jars filled with water dye concentrate.

Pulled a vacuum and left it for 48 hours. Open, pull out and let dry. Cut the balsa and the tooth picks - and there was a light un-dyed core on the tooth picks, and the balsa was dyed barely beyond the surface. The dye didn't even penetrate but about 1/64 inch on either

I tried again with vacuum for 48 hours, released the vac, put it under pressure (about 50 lbs) and let it set for 48 hours again. Same thing, no penetration of the dye beyond about 1/64 inch.

What is needed to dye deep into wood blanks?
- Specialized pressure/vacuum chambers - beyond the scope of home shop abilities?
- The kind of wood?
- The kind of dye?
- Special Techniques?
- Would boiling it work?

I have thought about drilling the blank to see if that would help, but with the experience with balsa and tooth picks, drilling a blank wouldn't help.

Thanks for your help and input.

 

[jttheclockman]

Hank I do not know about the plywood stuff. I know the spectra ply is dyed but the layers are very thin and They use high pressure or vacuum. Not sure what.

But I can address the toothpick thing because I asked about this to try to duplicate one of Eagles toothpick blanks. I was given some sound info that makes sense. Boil the toothpicks to soften them before putting in the dye. I have not tried it yet but it has moved up my to do list this winter.

Maybe you can use those thoughts for your project. Good luck.

 

[Monty]

I've had success on numerous woods by stabilizing the wood using Cactus Juice colored with Alumilite dyes. However, maple seems to be hit or miss for me with some areas taking the dye and others not.

 

[leehljp]

John,

Thanks for the boiling tip - from Eagle. I have a picture of his toothpick blank on my computer somewhere. That was part of the original purpose of my experiment way back when, but now, I am just wanting to dye a blank that I can turn and not have to dye AFTER turning.

Mannie,

Thanks for the idea. I will give it a try. I need to pull out my lighter colored woods and see which ones will take dying at least to 4 millimeters deep.

I will probably rough turn the blank round and then drill it 4 to 5 millimeters and see how that does it.

 

[RobS]

I have been dying spalted oak with great success. I dry it in the oven first, then toss it in a ziplock to cool down, then let it set in Cactus Juice with about 1/3 of a bottle of aluminite dye to roughly 16oz of Cactus juice. I let it sit till it stops absorbing, then I run it through the vaccuum for about 1hr, then 2 hrs at ambient, then repeat again, and let it sit overnight.

I usually have to bake it at about 215, the dye appears to shift the cross polymerization temperature from the 200 I bake non-colored blanks.

Good Luck

 

[KenV]

Lee

Vacuum causes a change in the vapor pressure and lowers the boiling point of water. If you were disolving the dye in another solvent it was vaporizing sooner.

Instead of pulling gasses out of the wood, you were vaporizing liquid for a much higher extent than you probably realized.

Dye and carrier are going to primarily move through end grain. Open grain woods work better than dense grain woods. Short lengths are easier than long lengths.


Cactus juice works because it does not boil off. But it does not get 100% in tighter or varigated grain patterns.

Heat will soften the internal glues within the wood, and cause gasses to expand. It helps with water as the carrier of the dye.

 

[dogcatcher]

I have dyed some wood that I cut into 1/4" thick slices, the color went through better through the end grains. I was making a military ribbon pin, I tried to dye whole blanks, no good. So I sliced off a bunch of pieces and dyed the short, about 1/4" thick pieces that were 1x1.

I used alcohol based leather dyes and first pulled an overnight vacuum and then an overnight pressure. It worked for me. But it was hard to glue together, so the next time I drilled with a 1/4" drill, sliced off my pieces, and glue and stacked on a dowel.

That was the end of the dye experiment for me.