As Bob would say "One more cup of coffee before I go"

**TEEJAY** · 15th July 2007, 10:17 PM

Okay,

so the bookcase is finished - nothing flash, but I made it as a first real project using the domino - so all joinery is dominoed - it worked well - was a bit of a steep learning curve and some things I would do differently next time.

But the other cause for adventure and experimentation was to make a dye from coffee grits and caustic soda and dye the pine with it. To achieve a non-blotchy finish (unlike samples) by using shellac as sanding sealer - then to finally finish the timber with shellac.

All new and all a first for me.

SWMBO wants next two things done in rumpus room - replace curtains and replace window cover with timber blinds - then one more room done (about 8 to go

)

The finish with shellac over was to give the coffee dye a bit of orange and a slight gloss to the finish - in retro-spec I think I would have gotten closer to the colour I wanted if i used tea dye and finished with orange shellac - never mind

it will have to do.

**watson** · 15th July 2007, 10:33 PM

G'day TEEJAY,
Love the coffee finish.....I've used it several times on Tassie oak, and I love not paying for commercial finishes.
Did you apply the coffee hot??

**Honorary Bloke** · 15th July 2007, 11:13 PM

As I was about to say before being rudely interrupted by the Server Too Busy slogan:

Nice work TJ!

Love the finish. Can you tell me a little more about the vertical boards forming the back? Are they butted? T&G? How are they attached? Inquiring minds want to know.

**Harry72** · 16th July 2007, 12:51 AM

Looks good TJ, coffee eh!

**TEEJAY** · 16th July 2007, 09:05 AM

Originally Posted by Honorary Bloke

As I was about to say before being rudely interrupted by the Server Too Busy slogan:

Nice work TJ!

Love the finish. Can you tell me a little more about the vertical boards forming the back? Are they butted? T&G? How are they attached? Inquiring minds want to know.

Hi Bob,

The panelling is a "v" joint T&G panel - every second "v" is a joint - attached to back with glue and a single nail to each board as they cross a shelf - this was the quickest and easiest thing to fix. SWMBO said the glue and the Domino was particularly noisy as I attached these

Her smarty input to my hammering as these were the only nails used

G'day TEEJAY,
Love the coffee finish.....I've used it several times on Tassie oak, and I love not paying for commercial finishes.
Did you apply the coffee hot??

Did read in Neil's book about the application of coffee hot and tried it on some samples - to be honest i didn't see much difference once I prepared the samples with sanding sealer and made the dye with addition of caustic soda - so no just applied at room temperature.

Back panels have one application of dye (by brush) and the frame has three applications.

The shellac was applied by swooge.

**RufflyRustic** · 16th July 2007, 09:28 AM

Great colour TJ. Looks like a very useful and good-looking bookcase

Strong too

cheers
Wendy

**Bob38S** · 17th July 2007, 01:00 PM

Nice work. Keep it coming. Especially the experimentation.

**Ticky** · 19th July 2007, 01:40 AM

Hi TEEJAY,
I love the colour & I have never heard of this method.

Couple of questions.

What is the formular to create a finish like this?

Is it easy to match?

How have you applied it?

Well done.

Steve

**TEEJAY** · 19th July 2007, 01:34 PM

Originally Posted by Ticky

Hi TEEJAY,
I love the colour & I have never heard of this method.

Couple of questions.

What is the formular to create a finish like this?

Is it easy to match?

How have you applied it?

Well done.

Steve

Steve,

I went to woolies and bought the cheapest vacuum pack of coffee there $1.50 from memory

- took it home and put it into a pot with about 2 litres of water and half a teaspoon of caustic soda (the mordent used to bind the dye to the wood). I let this simmer for a few hours and then wallah a few jars of coffee dye.

The trick to getting an even colour on the timber is definitely to apply a shellac sanding sealer first.

Is it easy to match - well I bet if I did the same again as above i would get it the same - but having said that when i was putting the back on the bookcase I thought I had enough timber but found I was half of one strip of "v"groove short and I had also run out of dye so I got 7 spoons of instant coffee into boiling water with about 1/4 teaspoon of caustic soda and then painted on the coffee hot with a brush and dried the panel with SWMBOs hairdryer and finished in shellac all in about half hour - the instant coffee almost identical to the rest - takes a keen eye to be pointed out the difference.

I would say instant coffee is a bit more golden than the boiled coffee grits. I expected the boiled coffee to give a nice smell to the house - nup - it was a bitter not pleasant pong. Never mind aired out okay.

Application was with a brush with just some care to give a smooth even finish by doing full length strokes at final stage - nothing special or difficult.

I am happy with the finish it looks a lot better than the attempts I made with commercial dyes - they were just crap - some real blotchy some like baby poo - the experimentation in the beginning was expensive and very disheartening so when someone on the forum said use "the polishers handbook" and make your own from tea - I went in and found the coffee was similar to what I wanted and went from there. I will use tea or coffee again in the future.

The tea dye gives a beautiful golden colour.

**silentC** · 19th July 2007, 01:42 PM

Looks good TJ. I wonder if you can use old coffee grits from the coffee machine? I've got heaps of that...

**TEEJAY** · 19th July 2007, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by silentC

Looks good TJ. I wonder if you can use old coffee grits from the coffee machine? I've got heaps of that...

Thanks.

Would the coffee grits still have plenty of colour in it? I know once a teabag has soaked try and reuse it and there is no tanin left - not sure if coffee works like that? My pack of coffee was only a $1.50 - cheap enough really

**silentC** · 19th July 2007, 02:04 PM

Only one way to find out!

**TEEJAY** · 19th July 2007, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by silentC

Only one way to find out!

I await you photos

- but yeah a simple enough experiment - the samples I did witout the caustic soda just didn't cut it and for sure seal the timber first with shellac sanding sealer made it accept the dye a lot more readily.

**munruben** · 19th July 2007, 02:39 PM

Great thread TEEJAY nice work, love that colour. Have printed out the recipe for the dye. Dying to try that one. Excuse the pun.

**Ticky** · 20th July 2007, 03:32 PM

TeeJay,

Thanks for your help, I will give this a go. Do you have anything for a mohogony colour?

Steve

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