Coffee ground inlay - silly question, maybe?

[Mike Minto]

I've heard many of you say to use coffee grounds as an inlay material to mask defects in wood, or simply for decoration - but, how do you apply it - fresh and unused, or after making coffee with it, or wetted with a solvent or adhesive? Appreciate any info. (P.S. I've started to collect baggies of sawdust for the same purpose - anyone else do this? I've found, since I've recently tried rough turning green wood and saving it to finish turn later, that I'll have many cracks to fill. Not making money off my turnings, just keeping them for decoration or giving them as gifts, I guess I'll have to live with these filled defects - do you all, who do the same, feel comfortable with this, and just accept it as part and parcel of turning green?). Mike

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike,

My wife made the mistake of buying some instant coffee 25 or so years ago. It's still in the cupboard. I take some of the instant coffee crystals and mash them with a spoon. Then I mix it with epoxy and use it to fill holes and cracks. The coffee is there, in my case, for color. The epoxy does the bonding.

[Mike Minto]

Ken, that's funny! Does she think you are drinking it? Mike

[Jim Becker]

Doesn't matter if it's fresh or used...works just as well, as long as it's dry to start. And if you have a good coffee grinder, you have the ability to make the grounds as fine or coarse as you want to best suit the particular piece you are working on. You can also use different kinds of beans to get color choice, too...

[Bernie Weishapl]

I do like Ken. I mix instant coffee with 5 min epoxy and fill whatever. I bought a small jar and keep it in the shop.

[Gary Max]

We dry used grounds on newspaper in the sun---You must get them dry.
I bought a $15.00 spice grinder at wallyworld so I can have course and fine.

[Judy Kingery]

Mike, not a direct answer to your inlay question, but I have used instant coffee as a stain and it worked great. Left grain real pretty, but darkened the wood just as I wanted. Just a thought. Jude

[Hilel Salomon]

Mike,

After Bernie's original post on coffee and epoxy, I went to Walmart and bought a package of Puerto Rican espresso which is very finely ground. It was too acidic for me to drink but it is great for filling cracks, defects and nicks when mixed with epoxy. It costs about 2 bucks so it is cheap!!! I have also used the Mexican one which runs about 25 cents more.
Luck,
Hilel.

[Ron Ainge]

It appears that I am not the only one with an old can of coffee sitting around the house that has finally come to a good use. I fill the voids with the coffee grounds and then put CA on it to set it in place. You may be surprised that the grounds with start the setting of the CA almost as soon at it contacts the coffee. you may want to put on a second coat of CA to make sure it covers completely. If you are at the finish stage of the item you are working on use some type of wax around the area so that the glue does not soak into the wood and ruin the appearence.

[Don Eddard]

I use instant coffee. I've read of others who use ground up charcoal.