Will glue work on dyed wood?

[Wade Lippman]

I am making a table out of two kinds of wood that I am dying and staining to be the same color. The stain will be the same, but one (African mahogany) will have a light brown dye and the other (unknown tropical) will have a dark brown/red dye; all transtint in water.
It will be a lot easier to dye the wood before assembly, as the two woods will be mixed together. Will they glue okay with TBIII?


I don't have enough AM for the project, and I would much rather use up the unknown wood than buy more AM. Otherwise it might sit here forever. The grain is very much like AM, but rather wilder.

[Jerry Miner]

You must be a better man than I. When I glue up a tabletop I have to sand the joints flush. If the wood were pre-dyed, I'd be sanding through the dye--at least in spots. What would be the point?

IMHO you'd be better off dying after, even if the glue can bond the dyed wood.

[Mike Henderson]

You can certainly glue dyed wood. I do it all the time with dyed veneer. It glues no different than undyed wood.

Mike

[Note that I'm specifically addressing dye and not stain.]

[Rich Engelhardt]

You can certainly glue dyed wood. I do it all the time with dyed veneer. It glues no different than undyed wood.Alcohol or water - or - doesn't it matter?

[Wade Lippman]

You must be a better man than I. When I glue up a tabletop I have to sand the joints flush. If the wood were pre-dyed, I'd be sanding through the dye--at least in spots. What would be the point?

IMHO you'd be better off dying after, even if the glue can bond the dyed wood.

So far the table top is entirely "other" and the legs are mahogany. Haven't made the rest, but I am hoping I won't have to make any single component out of both.

[Dick Mahany]

I have glued many layers of stained/colored thin veneer strips with success. I used Titebond III, but I don't know what the materials were colored with.

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[Mike Henderson]

Alcohol or water - or - doesn't it matter?

Doesn't matter. The carrier (alcohol or water) is long gone by the time you should glue up.

Mike

[Erik Christensen]

besides no post-glue-up sanding you also can't use a damp rag to remove glue squeeze out - it will pull up the dye at the same time. If you do not need to sand/plane after glue-up and you have total control over squeeze out you should be fine.

[Chris Padilla]

Perhaps try using that green or yellow Frog tape that is supposed to seal well and not allow (latex paint) to creep under it when painting. I have no idea how will it might work with dye. Experiment and report back, Wade!!

[Curt Harms]

Perhaps try using that green or yellow Frog tape that is supposed to seal well and not allow (latex paint) to creep under it when painting. I have no idea how will it might work with dye. Experiment and report back, Wade!!

That's what I was thinking as well. Tape off what's going to be glued before finishing or dying in this case. Tape also works to keep squeeze-out off surfaces where you don't want it. I don't know if tape on dyed surfaces would remove some of the dye when removed or not.

[Erik Christensen]

you can give it a shot but my trials have not been successful - latex sits on the surface - a dye by definition is absorbed - the lines were fuzzy and the only way I could stop migration under the tape was to score the edge of the tape with an exacto knife to sever the surface wood fibers to stop capillary absorption - the lines were narrow enough that they filled with clear finish and so the surface was smooth but the color junction did not look like i had hoped.

you figure this out i'd love hear how you did it