Bowl turning

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Alwyn

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Joined
30 Mar 2022
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Australia
I want to colour a series of 10 mm boards [various colours], then glue up to make a blank suitable for turning a bowl. The effect should be something out of the ordinary. Anyone tried tbis? Problem I see is getting the dye/clour to penetrate each board. Any ideas?
 
I can't see any dye penetrating far enough to be still there after hollowing out. Even if you build it up in rings you will be taking out 10mm or more in places. People do odd things with coloured pencils and epoxy but I never have, search for pencil bowl for ideas.

I wonder if you could make a bowl conventionally with thick sides, sanded but unfinished, cut it up on a Bandsaw, stain each piece, reassemble and just fine sand/polish back on the lathe? Have to think carefully about the blade thickness but it might all work.

Or temporarily glue up your boards with paper in each joint. Turn, pull it apart, stain and rebuild.
 
I can't help thinking it'd be easier to turn a bowl then mask off the rings and stain them individually
 
You need to look to the stabilizing guys for the answer. Some dye their Cactus Juice to colour the blanks while under vacuum.

If you are using a porous or lightweight wood cut the boards into rings and dry them in a toaster oven until bone dry. Then submerge them aniline dye coloured Cactus Juice in a vacuum chamber and pull a full vacuum until there is no more bubbling. It can take days depending on the wood. Then remove the vacuum and keep it submerged to let atmospheric pressure force more juice into the wood. Now you wrap it in foil and bake it in the toaster oven at about 100C to set the resin.

Still want to dye the wood? You might look to see if the coloured Spectraply is available.

Pete
 

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