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Should I document my kit builds here?

#101
I wonder if you could dissolve some dye into denatured alcohol and then add that to tung oil. If that worked, you could be applying tinted coats which may help get more depth of colour. I think I'd put some dye in 1 oz of dna and then add some to a bit of tung oil just to see. :)
 
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#102
Beej said:
I wonder if you could dissolve some dye into denatured alcohol and then add that to tung oil. If that worked, you could be applying tinted coats which may help get more depth of colour. I think I'd put some dye in 1 oz of dna and then add some to a bit of tung oil just to see. :)
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The leather dye is alcohol based. I don't know if it's denatured (I don't actually know what that means) but I know it's alcohol based. I guess I could mix a little and try it on some scrap wood.
 
#103
Markshan said:
The leather dye is alcohol based. I don't know if it's denatured (I don't actually know what that means) but I know it's alcohol based. I guess I could mix a little and try it on some scrap wood.
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Usually when we talk about denatured alcohol (or DNA), it's just a can of alcohol on its own, rather than something like dye in an alcohol solution.

Denatured alcohol has some contaminants that make it unsuitable for human consumption. On the downside, you can't use it to make party punch because everybody will be running to the bathroom. On the upside, it's exempt from the tariffs applied to drinkable alcohol so it's cheaper than Everclear and you can find it at most hardware stores.
 
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#106
Max Bogosity said:
I know nothing, but if colour is coming off as you apply the oil, that would seem to imply that the dye is soluble in oil.
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I thought about that, but I really don't think so for two reasons. First off, it was only pulling off of the areas where I had done the second coat. It was not pulling off over the entire surface. Second, look at this test piece that I did last night. When I added the tung oil to the dye, they didn't really mix. The guy just kind of stayed in a cloud in the middle. After a ridiculous amount of mixing I was able to blend them together, but I wouldn't really use the word soluble because I had to keep mixing. If I let the mixture sit for a minute it would separate again. More importantly look at this test piece I did. It wipes straight across and you can see a clear color line. However, you can also see a line where the tongue oil lead further into the wood. And on that line tongue oil is completely clear. It literally did not bring even a bit of the color over with it as it penetrated the wood. This makes me think that they didn't really mix it all in a chemical way they just got spread on at the same time.
So what I'm thinking now is if after two more coats of oil there are still those spots that I find to be too light I'll go ahead and do what I did on the test piece with the spots, but I will only do it in the spots. And then I'll give that a week to try and not touch it and put another coat of tung over it and let that dry before I do any more sanding
IMG_20230918_012712.jpg
 
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#109
Markshan said:
I thought about that, but I really don't think so for two reasons. First off, it was only pulling off of the areas where I had done the second coat. It was not pulling off over the entire surface. Second, look at this test piece that I did last night. When I added the tung oil to the dye, they didn't really mix. The guy just kind of stayed in a cloud in the middle. After a ridiculous amount of mixing I was able to blend them together, but I wouldn't really use the word soluble because I had to keep mixing. If I let the mixture sit for a minute it would separate again. More importantly look at this test piece I did. It wipes straight across and you can see a clear color line. However, you can also see a line where the tongue oil lead further into the wood. And on that line tongue oil is completely clear. It literally did not bring even a bit of the color over with it as it penetrated the wood. This makes me think that they didn't really mix it all in a chemical way they just got spread on at the same time.
So what I'm thinking now is if after two more coats of oil there are still those spots that I find to be too light I'll go ahead and do what I did on the test piece with the spots, but I will only do it in the spots. And then I'll give that a week to try and not touch it and put another coat of tung over it and let that dry before I do any more sanding
View attachment 5193007
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Makes sense to me. Maybe what’s happened is that some of the second coat of dye just dried on the surface instead of sinking in, and you’re wiping off loose particles rather than re-dissolving it.
 
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#111
I'm watching my Steelers hoping they can right the ship after last week. The game is in Acrisure which is natural grass and seeing the spots where the grass is deeper colored and the spots where it is lighter and the little patches of orangish brown peeking through in the high traffic areas is totally reminding me of the finish on my guitar.

I think I may need help, lol.
 
#112
At the top of page 5 I had said that I didn't have any inspiration about what to do with the headstock. My goal was for it to not just be left stock, but also to not have to disrupt too much of the finish. I was perusing the local Craigslist looking at basses as I do from time to time and I saw an old Yamaha that had what appeared to me to be a coved headstock. From other pictures I've seen since it turned out that it's not actually coved at all but rather just painted in a way that made it appear so. Nevertheless I had already had the inspiration and was going to run with it.
Again I didn't want to fool with most of the finish if I didn't have to, and I wanted to add a little motion. Plus, I wanted to bring some of the Green from the body up to the headstock but I wasn't sure how to achieve that.
So I went on Amazon and bought the $30 special trim router which came with a small set of bits including a quarter inch cove. Having never used the router before I was a little nervous going into it just like I was with the Japanese carving knife and scrapers on page one. But for a first try I feel like this came out pretty well. Certainly not perfect, but that's what sandpaper is for, right? I didn't mean to carry it down quite so far at the nut. That was a mistake. But if I manage to not chip that end off of there it actually looks pretty cool I think.
IMG_20230929_104952.jpg


DURATION: Twenty minutes
 
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#113
I'll dye the inside of that cove with the same green just to carry a stripe of the color up to the headstock. I also decided that I will create a Green version of my logo which is usually black and I will print a water slide. Then I can clear coat the headstock front and sides to cover both the decal and the green dyed cove.
I really like the way that shape looks from this angle.
IMG_20230929_105017.jpg
 
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#114
Like I said I was intimidated because I had never used the router before. I watched a couple videos ahead of time so I would have some idea of what to expect. The one thing I didn't anticipate was that little ball bearing guide crushing a line into the side of the headstock. I guess I will attempt to steam this out unless somebody has a better idea.
IMG_20230929_105038.jpg

Had I known I would have put a strip of masking tape to minimize that somewhat.
 
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#116
So I attempted to steam out the rut that I made with the router. I used a wet microfiber towel and my soldering pencil. I've had very good luck with that method in the past but it wasn't budging at all for me. So it occurred to me that maybe the finish that they had put on there was keeping the steam from penetrating. So I took a fine pick and scratched a few scratches into the wood and tried again. That did Aid somewhat and now the surface is probably only a 64th that needs sand and it's supposed to probably almost an eighth in the one spot before.. I will keep an eye on it as I sand and if it looks like at some point it might benefit from some More steam I'm certainly not afraid to revisit that. Perhaps as the finish starts to sand off the steam will be more effective.
IMG_20231002_180912.jpg
 
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#117
So I was going to start sanding out that side but it occurred to me that if I have any drip when dying the cove it won't sink in as much if that finish is there and I also won't have to remove as much wood. So I guess my next step is to hand sand The cove a little bit and then dye it. Then the sanding on the side will serve two purposes both the groove sanding smooth and any drippage being sanded out. Makes sense or am I missing something?
 
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