First time using tung oil

[SonomaProducts.com]

I use Transtint premixed concentrated dyes. They are liquid and you mix it with water or alcohol, I use water now after experimenting with both. Some tricks to learn but great stuff. They come in lots of colors and easy to mix to get any color you want.

- Alcohol dries way to fast and you end up with lap marks that are hard to wash away.

- Wet and sand, wet and sand to raise and kill grain nibs.

- Get project damp first to slow absorbition which gives you better control

- Build up to darkness you want or wash out areas with fresh water if too dark

- Don't be afraid of water

- Watch seams, molding, corners and joints because the water wicks in then wicks back out later and you end up with too much dye in corners etc so keep wiping for 20 minutes or so.

- There is a great video somewhere on FWW where a guy is doing sunburst colors on an electric guitar and he shows how to wash in and out the color.

- Dyes look very ugly when dry and don't become beautiful until oiled and especially when you hit them with shellac, lacquer, varnish or poly.

[SonomaProducts.com]

That's good also. Kind of oversold on the durability even after fully cured but a good finish none the less. I try really hard to get my film finishes thin and dulled to look much like an oiled finish but with a little better durability only needing wax for the rest of their life. True oil finishes should be renewed every year or two.

[Father Haskell]

Transtint / Transfast dyes will stain maple jet black in very few coats. You'll never go back to Minwax.

[Father Haskell]

Mineral spirits or turpentine, depending on whichever smell you can best tolerate. Denatured EtOH won't cut oil-based finishing products, just makes them precipitate out into useless clumps.

[Father Haskell]

Excessive oil can seep back from pores, causing many of the same problems. Apply light coats and wipe back thoroughly.

[Father Haskell]

Raw linseed oil is used by artists, who want as much working time as possible, several days, usually. If you really want a fast drying linseed oil, Tru-Oil gunstock oil is impossible to beat. Two hours between coats. Full cure takes less than a week. Builds almost as fast as varnish.

[Larry W]

Or concentrating too much on local gasoline prices...

[Larry Jaques]

The latter is why I plonked him six months ago. Talk about OCD...

-- Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. -- Jimi Hendrix

[JayPique]

I'll second the Waterlox plug. Excellent stuff. JP

[Leon]

Thamks for the tips.

[Leon]

Never go back to Minwax. Now that was funny, I don't care who you are. I would never by choice use Minwax stains or varnishes.

I did try General Finishes Dye Stain for the first time on my current Large project and I am pretty impressed. In this particular case I like the fact that the day does in fact stain rather than paint on a translucent finish like their gel stains.

I was a Lawrence McFadden and Bartley's gel stain and gel varnish loyal user until both became unavaliable. Now I have to find a new main stay, Althought Good Stuff varnish is a lot like the Lawrence McFadden gel varnish.

[Larry Jaques]

+1

The Hindenburg, The Titanic, The Clintons, Packard Hell, Minwhacked, WaterSeal, Maytag, Yugo, Fiat, Obama. (Great F-Ups in History)

If a person is frugal, go buy dyes at W.D. Lockwood in NYC. They're inexpensive, if you must use dye (or stain.)

(Prices tripled since I last looked) How to use.

-- The unexamined life is not worth living. --Socrates

[Fred the Red Shirt]

st of the "tung oil

I hope you spread them out somewhere where they won't burn your house down if that method fails.

If you're rinsing them for re-use either you use a lot of oil finish or you are awfully cheap!

Somewhere back in the Google archives of this newsgroup there is an article by a fellow who used to hang his rags on the clothesline to dry. One day one caught fire.

He probably didn't rinse them first, but still...

The common instructions for disposal call for sealing the rag in a metal container, like an old paint can that is partially filled with water. You can keep doing that until the can is full of rags then toss it in the trash.

Once the rags are hard and stiff the danger of spontaneous combustion is past.

An alternative is to deliberately burn them, if you have a safe place to do that.

[dadiOH]

Whoa there, my friend. I bought a 1973 Fiat Spyder new, loved it, still have it, it was our only car until an idiot pulled out into the highway and stopped.