TransTint and plywood

[Roy Fleming]

Can I use TransTint(with water) on plywood or will it cause it to delaminate?

[Matt Meiser]

I just used a waterborne stain on oak plywood and it behaved oddly, like it swelled the veneer or something. I never thought of delamination, but there's no evidence of that, even at the exposed edges of hidden parts.

[glenn bradley]

Could you use denatured alcohol instead of distilled water and avoid the problem?

[mike holden]

Roy,
Sounds like you have both the plywood and the transtint - so take a piece of scrap and try it. You will have to make sample boards in any case.
Mike

BTW, I do not believe that delamination will be an issue, you wont be soaking the plywood in water. However, you will raise the grain, and *may* have warping issues if it is a veneered plywood.

[Roy Fleming]

No, I haven't purchased the plywood yet, I am trying to decide whether to use ply or do glue ups. By the way, it will be walnut plywood if you think that makes any difference.

I don't like using any stain on walnut but the desired look I was asked to do was this "espresso" or dark chocolate color that seems to be popular these days. I tried various woods and stains/dye's and the walnut seemed to be what they liked. By the way, it is for a crib, chest of drawers and a nightstand. crib is done.

[Robert Reece]

About a year ago I did a whole sheet of shop maple plywood in a Mahogany transtint (water based). I had no problems with the veneer. What did happen though is that it raised the grain and when I scuff sanded it, there were slight ripples in the top veneer so the tops of the ripples got sanded a little harder than everything else. So the final product had some light stripes in it. I didn't really care because of what I was using this plywood for. You might be ok if you pre-raise the grain and the don't sand until after you have applied at least a coat of poly over it.

[Darl Bundren]

I used transtint on plywood for a toy organizer I made. I used stain preconditioner to raise the grain, sanded it, dyed it, and then brushed on polyurethane. The finish turned out well.