Gluing After Dying

[fRED mCnEILL]

I'm building some cabinets and am using a water soluble dye and then lacquer.

Can I dye the wood and then glue it or will this affect the glue joint?

Thanks

Fred Mc.

[Charles Goodwin]

Horses have been doing it successfully for years.


Seriously, I see no reason that a dyed board, once fully dry, would have any significant resistance to bonding in comparison to a non-dyed board. If you go that way (rather than dying after you build, which seems easier), I'd use a dyeable glue to make any visible glue line match your wood in color.

[Mark Major]

[QUOTE=Charles Goodwin;1405565]Horses have been doing it successfully for years.

Always nice starting the day out with a little humor. :D

Regards, Mark

[David Gilbert]

I don't understand the "horses have been doing it" comment.

Have you done any test pieces with different glues and dyes? These can be small pieces that you can stress to see how they react. Don't forget the no-dye samples since they are the control samples. By doing several of each you can test the 30 minute hold, 1 day hold, and 1 week hold strengths.

Cheers,
David

[Ethan Sincox]

I don't understand the "horses have been doing it" comment.

Was a reference to glue being made by horse parts after they are dead (gluing after dying)...

My comment was going to be something similar, but Charles beat me to it.

[john bateman]

I think a more critical issue might be what to do if some glue gets on the dyed area. If you try to wipe the wet glue off, it will smear or pull some of the dye off. And if you have to sand dried glue off it will definitely remove some color.

What I would do is dye the wood first, a shade or 2 lighter. After assembly and all excess glue removal, go back over with dye again to blend in any damaged areas and achieve you final color.

[Frank Drew]

I wouldn't color the wood before glueing, not because the dye might affect the glue but because any scraping or sanding post glueup will affect the evenness of the coloring.

An exception would be for something like the panel before assembling a frame and panel construction, but, still, the panel would be fully made before the dye or stain was applied.