Spraying Transtint Dye?

[Jim Kappel]

Is it okay to spray TT Dye diluted with distilled water or is it a much better decision to use DNA? I'd prefer to use water at this point, but if it's not a good choice, I'd go the DNA route.

Jim

[Jamie Buxton]

If you spray Transtint in water, you're likely to raise the fuzzies, and then you'll want to resand. However, resanding picks up a lot of the pigment particles of the dye. For this reason, I spray Transtint with alcohol. An alcohol fog is a possible fire hazard, so I do it with good ventilation, and I don't spray a big volumn of alcohol. After all, you're just trying to mist the dye on the wood, not lay a thick coat of lacquer. Another good thing about using alcohol is that it evaporates off the wood rapidly, so you can quickly see if you've missed anything.

[Jim Kappel]

I'm trying to start off pretty light. What kind of ratio would you guys start off with? I'm using Dark Walnut but still don't want to go too heavy at first.

Tips?

[Jamie Buxton]

Transtint suggests 2 oz dye to 1/2 gal of solvent. I only make up as much as I think I'm going to need -- a half cup or a cup. At Transtint's ratio, a half cup of solvent would take about a half teaspoon of dye.

[Rob Cunningham]

I use TransTint in a 50/50 mixture of distilled water/ DNA for spraying. The DNA helps it dry faster so you don't get as much grain raising. I usually pre- raise the grain before spraying, so that helps also.
Spray light coats so there is no puddling on the wood, just mist it on. It dries in about 10 mins. Keep spraying light coats till you get the color you want. Then seal in the dye with some dewaxed shellac. Then you can lightly sand to knock down any raised grain without taking any color off. Then finish with the top coats.

[Scott Holmes]

I just finished a job where we used 25-30+ gallons of DNA & TT dye. Med. Brown and Dark Walnut. (25 gallons and 5 respectively).

As for the water raising the grain... I find it is very easy to use shellac to lock the fuzz, then lightly sand.

OR

On big jobs or for less sanding... apply your top coat and after the 2nd or 3rd top coat, whatever is left of the fuzz will easily sand off when you sand before your next coat(s).