BARE SPOTS AFTER DYEING???

[Flynman]

I have just finished spraying dye on my Warmoth Tele body for the second time. I have about 3 or 4 spots that won't seem to take the dye. I resanded everything down to the bare wood again. I sanded everything to a final 280 grit.  ( I used 320 1st time). cleaned the body with naptha then mineral spirits then a little amonia & water. Let it dry over night. I then respayed the dye and the same spots come up almost bare even after 3 coates. I let body dry between coates.Any ideas?


                                                                                                 Thanks
                                                                                                 Keith

 

[dmraco]

not sure but warmoth only will use dye on Maple.  Other woods may have issues holding it.  If you notice they use "transparent"...blue...red...etc...not dye unless it is on a flame-burl maple top. 

If you are looking for BLUE...Minwax makes a water based stain that will work...its a wipe on.

 

[Tonar8352]

Keith,
What I would do is give it a couple wash coats of clear finish and lightly sand it, this will even the porosity of the wood out.  Then use the dye to shade the lacquer to the color your after and spray it with the shading coat. Turn your air pressure up real high and your fluid mix down low so it is atomizing the material real well.  Hold the gun about 10 or 12 inches from the surface and let the material fall on it.  You do not want to get a pattern.

Do a test board first for color confirmation and to make sure it will give you the desired effect. 

 

[Keyser Soze]

Is that alder?

My opinion of alder is that it takes paint really well.  Dyes and stains?  Notsomuch.

Tonar's advice is excellent.  You are best off applying the dye as a type of toner after sealing the wood with some diluted finish.

If you go the minwax route you will likely still need to use some sort of pre-stain conditioner.

 

[Mor Paul]

Keith,
What I would do is give it a couple wash coats of clear finish and lightly sand it, this will even the porosity of the wood out.  Then use the dye to shade the lacquer to the color your after and spray it with the shading coat. Turn your air pressure up real high and your fluid mix down low so it is atomizing the material real well.  Hold the gun about 10 or 12 inches from the surface and let the material fall on it.  You do not want to get a pattern.

Do a test board first for color confirmation and to make sure it will give you the desired effect. 

+1. I don't understand some of it, but it's Tonar, who is the finishing god around here

 

[jackthehack]

Tonar is always right, but he's assuming you have access to a spray rig and are ready to shoot lacquer and mix colors.

Regardless of whether it's alder or another wood, a guitar body is three dimensional and different parts of the grain will absorb dye or stain at different rates. If you're using more natural wood toned colors, this will look more natural and be OK (see pic below with two tone stain job on alder).

It's hard to tell from the pics you posted, but if you're using color that does not occur naturally in wood, you might want to try bleaching the wood, see this Tonar thread on doing alder blue burst: http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=1324.0 Or easier still, use a transparent tinted toner after prepping the alder with sanding sealer/wash coats if you don't have a spray rig/want to mix color yourself.

 

[rahimiiii]

If you live in the United States you should be able to buy preval units which is a spray thing with a bottle below it for spraying liquids. This should work for spraying toners. The only color in my experience that works as a dye on alder is yellow or vintage amber. Any other color will NOT work. I actually do dye alder bodies with yellow before spraying on bursts, but oftentimes the result is blotchy but the dye does give some 3-D look, so if it comes out blotchy then I will spray more toner over it to even things out. Only time I would ever use dyes in any other case is if I am dying flamed or quilted maple...