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how long do you wait after dying before buffing - let the dye dry overnight ? two hours?

thanks

teevee

Until it's dry.

Honestly, I couldn't tell you. When I'm ready to buff, my pipes are usually ready to be buffed. If pressed, I would say it might be 20 minutes from the time the last stain was applied.

If I use a flame to dry the dye, it only takes 20 minutes. I then let it cool off before working. If you don't use a flame to dry, it might take a day to dry, in my experience this makes for better workability since it isn't wet at all. HTH!

I read somewhere in this nice forum...some times ago..that you can heat up the pipe before staining, and have 2 advantages: better and deeper penetration to the wood and faster drying.
Since then I have been heating up my pipes before staining - just using a heatgun to make it properly warm (that is enough to almost burn your fingers when touching it - but not so warm, it makes the wood crack) between the stainings. My experience is, that there is no harm done in starting buffing, when the pipe has cooled down.

I've tried both letting the dye air dry and burning it off. When I burn it off, it will be dry as soon as the flame goes out but it leaves a film that is more difficult to sand out. Would cutting the dye with alchohol help reduce the film?

Sawdust wrote:I've tried both letting the dye air dry and burning it off. When I burn it off, it will be dry as soon as the flame goes out but it leaves a film that is more difficult to sand out. Would cutting the dye with alchohol help reduce the film?

From what I've read, it's the burning that leaves a greenish tint. You'd only dilute the dye by adding alcohol.

Depending on the stain, and how heavy you apply it, it could leave that film when burned off. That's why I don't tend to burn it off on rusticated/blasted pipes, or for the final staining.

Great, thank you. I'll just let it air dry when I get into the finer grits.

Jim