Source For Dye In Economical Sizes?

[fookgub]

I'm working on a couple of projects right now with tinted finishes. I need three or four different colors of dye, and all I've been able to find at Stewmac and Woodcraft is two-ounce bottles for around $17 each. This is way more dye than I need, and I don't really want to spend $70 on a bunch of dye when it will take me years to use it up at my current building pace. I was really hoping to find an assortment of colors in 1/2-once bottles for a more economical price. Does anyone know where I could buy something like that?

[fryovanni]

I'm working on a couple of projects right now with tinted finishes. I need three or four different colors of dye, and all I've been able to find at Stewmac and Woodcraft is two-ounce bottles for around $17 each. This is way more dye than I need, and I don't really want to spend $70 on a bunch of dye when it will take me years to use it up at my current building pace. I was really hoping to find an assortment of colors in 1/2-once bottles for a more economical price. Does anyone know where I could buy something like that?

LMI sells a 5 pack of 2oz dyes for $50. Great Dye reasonable price.

[fookgub]

LMI sells a 5 pack of 2oz dyes for $50. Great Dye reasonable price.

That is a great price! LMI claims any color can be mixed from the 5 basic colors they give you in the kit. Is this true?

Edited September 1, 2007 by fookgub

[Myka Guitars]

If you don't need premixed dyes you can get powdered aniline dyes in 1/2 oz. packages also from LMI:

6 colors of Alcohol soluble dyes for $21.

7 colors of Water Soluble dyes for $24.

I have used both types and they are good stuff but they are less colorfast than the concentrated dyes that Rich mentions. I like to use the concentrated dyes for mixing with lacquer. The water based anilines are what I use for my dye bursts.

It is possible to mix any color with the 5 colors they provide. Yellow and blue make green, blue and red make purple, red and yellow make orange, etc. Add brown or black to change the lightness. You can change the colors on the wood by adding different dyes over the top of it. With water based dyes you can mix colors right on the wood like watercolor painting and even lighten it up by adding lighter dyes or water. It pushes the dye out of the wood fibers but you have to do this when it is wet.

1/2 oz amounts will give you plenty to test with. Get some scrap and experiment. Dye work is really fun stuff.

~David

[Jon]

I purchased some water soluble dyes at rockler in the smaller amounts, around 1/2 ounce - 1 ounce and I've done 2 neck refinishes with the stuff so far. A 1/2 ounce of dye could probably get me enough for 15+ necks, so you wont need a great deal.

Dye work is a whole lot of fun! I love using the stuff and can't wait to use it on more projects.

[fookgub]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I'm going to be mostly dealing with tinted lacquer, so I'm going to buy the 5-pack of premixed dyes as soon as I figure out whether or not I want to toss anything else in with the order.

[marksound]

+1. Dye is fun and it's not as hard as you'd think.

[ToddW]

I have used both types and they are good stuff but they are less colorfast than the concentrated dyes that Rich mentions. I like to use the concentrated dyes for mixing with lacquer. The water based anilines are what I use for my dye bursts.

Have you actually seen color fading in modern aniline type dye?

edit: Forgot to mention these:

http://www.veneersupplies.com/advanced_sea...words=transtint

They are also excellent, although the bottles don't re-seal that well.

Todd

http://www.rockler.com/tech/RTD10000274AA.pdf (pseudo tech sheet)

Edited September 5, 2007 by ToddW