Ron 01960
Posts: 2
Joined: 2008-09-28
Location: Peabody Mass
 User Profile |
Dying veneer
My thinking process was that RIT dye is used for coloring paper and cloth. Why not wood veneer? Cellulose right!
I picked up the powdered red, green, blue, black and purple at the local food store, very inexpensive. $2.00 a box.
Just a word of caution if you spill any it will come back to haunt you. I used a baking pan about 8x2x2'' deep. I boiled a small amount of water and added the powered dye, I found it easier to handle in a liquid. I didn't measure very precisely as this was just a test. I added that liquid dye solution mixture to the pan that had about an 3/4 inch of hot water in it. I placed dampened strips of maple in the pan before the dye just to keep from splashing. I brought the burner on the stove up to a point of hot but not boiling. This still causes the water to evaporate. I used stainless steel tongs to rotate the pieces from bottom to top of the 4-5 sheet pile. This will keep the color more uniform if thats what you prefer. If the veneers which are now very floppy rest against one another the image of the overlap that was touching each other will show in the wet veneer. I never fixed and dried them I just kept the separate The color regained uniformity after a few more minutes in the bath..
After an hour I removed a small test piece and hit it with cold water to fix the dye and cool the piece. I put it in the microwave for a few seconds to dry it. I then planed the piece to check the depth of penetration into the veneer. Use a dark color (black) to contrast against the lighter wood. several passes with a block plane at different angles indicated total color penetration!
I dyed veneer in the various colors listed above, if you leave the pieces in longer or add more dye to the bath it will darken the sheets. The advantage to dying you own veneer over commercially manufactured veneers is the many shades of a color thats available. After the veneer achieves total color penetration you can remove some or leave some in the bath. You will get evaporation so the water level will drop and the color will darken. Anyplace along the line you can add hot water and more dye if you want additional darker shades. Out of the same bath you have many chances to get what ever shades you want.
The instructions are the same now as when I was a boy helping Nana dye clothes. Fix the color with plenty of cold water. I dry it stacked between 5-6 sheets of news paper, I weigh the pile down and change the paper several times the first day, I change it every day as necessary Until dry. I store it in a lidded plastic box.
The veneer will buckle when it gets immersed. I have never needed to use the flattening process after it was dry. Then again the veneer was well behaved before the bath. I always threw in a few odds and ends of many different veneers, the results are interesting.
I sampled the types of adhesive on the veneers with out any difficulty. Hot hide, cold hide, Elmers white, yellow glues. shellac, poly, varnish, lacquer posed no problems, No I didn't try oil, I have no concerns with the process or the results. Friends who I gave some to used most of it and all the black.. They said it acted like the "store bought veneers" with more shades of a color.
In all honesty I keep thinking that large diameter plastic sewer pipe caped on both ends would work. A longer period of time I suppose, no heat except leaving it flat on your drive way during the summer. Give it a kick in the morning and evening to keep the solution uniform, I just don't know. Maybe no heat at all, just a good soak, and the cold water fix. This way you can produce longer and wider sheets of what ever you need.
I have contacted the Rit company several time but there not replying back. It would be nice to apply some science to this.
I hope this helps
Ron
|
