DIY - Coloring Wood

[Jan]

While this may not be for your average wood coloring person ... because of my business I color lots of wood. For years now, I've always have fought the part of keeping the wood submersed under the water for my 10 minutes or so. When I color I have had the wire 1/8" mesh cut into a circular pattern butthen the edges start weakening and such plus often it needed weight on top of it and I had only made up 3 of them and I have 7 buckets of coloring that I use.

So one night I researched many ways and many options and something I could make up and would be easy to use and easy to clean and not cost a bundle of money. So my adventure lead me into many paths of oh this would work ... no, that's not good and it was just one thing or another that I did not like about so many things.

So finally, I found my perfect thing!! Take a look at my images and while you may not be able to picture how it is used, I can explain further and the image shows and explains on what it is I've done and used.

I will take one of these for each color and by using the pvc handle with it attached to the pan part I can submerse the pan under the water and it will fit snuggly against the wall of the bucket so nothing sneaks past the pan and floats to the top of the water, this has always been a big issue in coloring wood. So then when my wood is ready to take out, I just life up on the handle of the thing and pull up out of the water and wa-la!! Then I drain my wood!!

 

[waterfaller1]

Way cool idea Jan!

 

[lotus15]

Very cool!!! I really want to do this but I don't have the space Last time I tried I ended up dying my furniture + carpets but no wood

 

[Jan]

Oh man, I only colored one time at my kitchen counter when I really needed to color a few things and it was very cold out, so I set up on a very small scale it was more time consuming but it worked and is more of a pain to do.

So now today I was coloring some more stuff so I took a few photos of 3 buckets being yellow, orange and blue showing using my new gadget to hold the wood under the water, left wood submersed in there for 10 minutes then take wood out to place on my drying screen tables. What do you think? I really like it and am now a happy camper on how well it does!! YAY!

 

[CosmoKramer]

Those look like they work great!!

 

[luvsgreys]

What an awesome idea! I love it!

 

[Bokkapooh]

Looks great! I can imagine the process though!

 

[AubsterNzoo]

I have questions:
Are those 5 gallon buckets?
Where did you find the pizza pans at?
How do you get the wood out of the bucket without staining your fingers?
How do you store the buckets of dye when you are finished?

 

[Jan]

I have questions:

Are those 5 gallon buckets?
Where did you find the pizza pans at?
How do you get the wood out of the bucket without staining your fingers?
How do you store the buckets of dye when you are finished?

I found the pizza cutter pans online http://www.pizzatools.com/Cutter_Pans_Perforated/30871/subgrouping.htm and bought the right size I needed and got 7 of them for the 5 gallon buckets I have. I dump out my colors when I am finished. I can keep colors in the buckets safely for about 4 days and then I dump out and make up a new batch if needed. When I am all finished coloring, then I dump all colors out wash the buckets out well and dry and store in my shop.

To prevent my hands from staining, I use like rubber gloves, laytex type that are disposable. I may even have to change gloves several times throughout my process, the color rinses off the gloves okay but this last box of gloves I bought are not very good at all.

 

[CosmoKramer]

I have a question for you Jan
I was thinking about dying my own wood because I buy and cut my own. Nothing spectacular probably would only be able to do one color at a time but what type of dye do you use and how to go about preparing it?

 

[Sharpie]

Awesome, very pro solution!

 

[Jan]

I have a question for you Jan
I was thinking about dying my own wood because I buy and cut my own. Nothing spectacular probably would only be able to do one color at a time but what type of dye do you use and how to go about preparing it?

Zach - I just use restaurant grade food coloring. I buy it at Smart & Final mostly. I mix along at least one cup of it to along 2-3 gallons of water. Depends on the color I want. I soak wood for no more than 10 minutes. By the time I add in my wood items into the 7 colors, then I can come back to the first one and start taking it out to drain. Oh and I use a large metal strainer type spoon which is really for using in deep frying and is about 6-7" in diameter and has a long handle, it has more like a wire mesh on it.

You can always do just one color at a time, there is nothing wrong with that. I normally cut, drill holes and get all wood ready before I mix up my colors.

 

[lalagimp]

Oh and I use a large metal strainer type spoon which is really for using in deep frying and is about 6-7" in diameter and has a long handle, it has more like a wire mesh on it.

In some circles or maybe most, they refer to that as a spider if it's the wide circle with the wires laced up within the circumference.