Dye in epoxy

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Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
I have a burl bowl blank with lots of deep cracks.

I think this will be a good time to try some colored epoxy to fill the cracks then turn the bowl leaving transparent areas in there.

I would like the finished bowl to look like it has colored glass in it.

Will liquid transtint dye work in epoxy? Are there colored epoxies already available?

Is there something else that works better?
 
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smallboat

smallboat
Corporate Member
Mike-
I believe I read on the WEST system site that they had experimented with tinting epoxy.
My recollection (for what that's worth ) is that acrylic paints worked well.

Should be easy enough to try.
Definitely want to start with as transparent epoxy as possible.

Maybe some pen turners will have better info.

I'd like to see how this goes.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
I found this at Walmart of all places...

Environmental Castin' Craft Easycast Clear Casting Epoxy, 16oz.


CASTIN CRAFT Casting Epoxy Resin Transparent Yellow Pigment Dye 1 Oz
 

Mark Johnson

Mark
Corporate Member
Mike,
I have done this with black Transtint dye. It only took a couple of drops to get it black enough. I used it to fill in cracks in an otherwise beautiful piece of walnut. It worked well. I mixed it with West Systems epoxy.
 

Mark Gottesman

New User
Mark
FYI: Many epoxies will yellow over time. Glass and ceramic restoration people use a product called Hextal, but it is very expensive. It stays clear.
 

Danagawa

New User
D
I use crystal resin and pearl ex for color. The pearl ex is a powder that u mix in. I have also u the pearl ex with fiberglass resin and that works ok but often has some bubbles. Here is a little cut off that was a pink blue pearl. A pic of the crystal resin and an example of the pearl ex powder(a different color than the cutoff). image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
If u go to www.penturners.org there is tons of info about it on there
 

Rick M

New User
Rick
I have read of people using food coloring and transtint, but haven't tried either. I tried padauk sanding dust and it was interesting, a blood red color.
 

Matt Furjanic

New User
Matt
I use sanding dust of the same wood I am repairing. It must be sanding dust and not sawdust, which is too coarse. It takes surprising little dust to attain the desired color.
 

Mark Johnson

Mark
Corporate Member
Mike,

Ir you use epoxy, do it at the highest temp you can. They are very viscosity sensitive to temperature. Heat the wood first as well so that as it cools it will pull the epoxy into the gaps and not just off gas which is the primary cause of bubbles. You will also have do plan on multiple layers of epoxy resin or the epoxy which hardens in an exothermic reaction will also generate and trap unwanted gas bubbles. The West systems site has a good description of how to do this. Also, hardeners make a big difference. You are going to want one which sets fairly slowly to allow flow into crevices as well as one that hardens clear.
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
I have a burl bowl blank with lots of deep cracks.

I think this will be a good time to try some colored epoxy to fill the cracks then turn the bowl leaving transparent areas in there.

Are you going to do a "rough" turning of the blank and then work on the colored epoxy? Then turn again?

Here's a West System link that may be useful.

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/adding-pigments-to-epoxy/

They also used a liquid Rit dye in one of the tests.

https://www.ritstudio.com/color-library/
 

danmart77

Dan
Corporate Member
Mike,

Ir you use epoxy, do it at the highest temp you can. They are very viscosity sensitive to temperature. Heat the wood first as well so that as it cools it will pull the epoxy into the gaps and not just off gas which is the primary cause of bubbles. You will also have do plan on multiple layers of epoxy resin or the epoxy which hardens in an exothermic reaction will also generate and trap unwanted gas bubbles. The West systems site has a good description of how to do this. Also, hardeners make a big difference. You are going to want one which sets fairly slowly to allow flow into crevices as well as one that hardens clear.


That is good advise right there. Warm wood and slow epoxy mix is good. Since you are turning, you don't want surprise voids as you remove wood. Its almost inevitable that you will have a couple surprises but they can be worked.

Question
Are you going to rough turn the burl to some basic for first? I know the bowl will dry and move a little between turning sessions, but I can't envision how else to get near the final surface issues both inside and outside of the bowl. Just wondering here in the cold 28 on the mercury today.

Dan
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
When I started turning this burl it opened up cracks/splits that go 1 to 2 inches deep. Since I an looking at the outside of the bowl and haven't started the inside yet I figure anything I do at this point is going to be in the finished area. Probably best to fill it now, let it cure, finish turning the outside, and then turn the inside of the bowl.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
I have used both liquid transtint dye and the powdered stuff mixed with epoxy. I've only used black to make it look like mineral streaks for the cracks / splits on the underside of my workbench. I found the powder worked better for my application as it was darker and looked less blueish.

I've also used the crushed stone with thin CA glue to fill the holes in a Banksia Pod that I turned into a weed pot.

I have seen black CA Glue but not tinted epoxy, though I haven't really looked for it.

Some epoxies dry clearer (less yellowy) than others so might be better if you're going for a transparent look.
 

walnutjerry

Jerry
Senior User
Mike, I used a powdered dye in epoxy on some of the kaleidoscope tubes I did-----------worked good for me.

Jerry
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
I have bedded a few rifles in epoxy. I used powdered black and brown dye to make it similar to the stock color.
 
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