Dye before glue up

[Tom Ewell]

I find it a lot easier to shoot WB aniline dyes (or any finish) prior to glue up of drawers and the like, particularly inside faces where it's a little hard to control for even coverage of an assembly.

I normally mask off the joinery just to be 'safe' allowing for pva bond on raw wood.

Was wondering if I can skip the masking and still get a good glue bond or does the WB dye (by itself) seal the wood more than it appears?

[John TenEyck]

Water or alcohol based dye doesn't seal the wood. You will have no problem with glue adhesion on parts you've dyed before glue up.

John

[Tom Ewell]

Thanks John, pretty much what I thought but was a little concerned about some unkown (to me) reaction between the dyes and pva that might somehow weaken the bond.
Guess the worst that could happen is that the glue takes on some color, not a bad thing.

[John T Barker]

For what it is worth I worked with an extremely good shop and was pretty familiar with a bunch of others. Dying, staining and final finish was always done after the piece was completely glued up and, of course, finish sanded.