Hello all, Well... as I sit in front of my computer and type this, I have an overwhelming sense of [FAIL] rippling through my psyche. Today, I tried my hand at dying for the first time, and it was a monumental failure. It's not that the parts did not take the color, but a lot of them warped. I know it's my first time, and one should try and try again, but it was an expensive lesson. So here I sat, looking for some other method to dye, besides the traditional hot water method. I stumbled upon someone looking to "relic" some misc. item. Well the mentioned denatured alcohol as the vehicle to convey the dye into the plastic. What's even more interesting to me is that it was done at room temperature. Which is right up my alley. I don't need any more stinking, warped pieced!! So has anyone used Denatured Alcohol as the vehicle for dye? If so, what were your results? Any tips? How about another type of vehicle? Any prep work necessary? Oh yeah, and for the record, if anyone does try the hot water method, make sure any and all springs are removed. DOH!!
yea same, very interested in how this goes, i have an almost unlimited supply of isopropanol from work
Well, I got the Alcohol today, and the results were anything but anything at all. The color barely stuck, but I know that it was from lack of patience. I think the key is going to have to be submerging overnight. I'm going to test this on some craps of white plastic I have, to see what the results are. Anyways, I may as well make this my ongoing thread about my other adventures in dying. Back to the boiling water method. Well, here are the results of my second Dye job. No warping. My first dye job was monumental failure. Let's just put it this way, I forgot to take some springs out and the parts paid for it. Warping is a major issue when dealing with heat. Obviously. Well the 2nd time around, I monitored the heat carefully. With the parts out, I bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat to almost nothing. Submerge the parts for a few minutes, and then start over. Another thing I learned real fast is (DO NOT RINSE WITH COLD WATER). Again, this sounds obvious, but I got nailed by that too. This time around I kept a bowl of hot tap water to rinse off, and then let air cool. Refreshing the hot tap water every so often. Rinsing and cooling with cold water is a warping nightmare. More coming soon.
S-L-X Denatured alcohol. Blue and red can. It does not specify concentration. This one. http://images.lowes.com/product/converted/030192/030192026151lg.jpg
OK. My first bout with acetone, sucked. I tried it raw first, and it melted my test piece. I mixed with water, 50/50 and too diluted. 75/25 and still melted. 25/75 and nothing. I guess it would be a matter of finding the right mix of acetone, and water or, isopropyl. No heat. (EXTREMELY DANGEROUS VAPORS) On to my next experiment. I'm trying to see if there is a way to avoid having to boil the dye to get it to stick.
id avoid that alcohol i tried ethanol for paint and plastic, but it doesnt work well at all if you want the chemistry, that solution is too polar, and like works with like, so non polar works better with plastics, thats why acetone and hexane will eat thru plastic, nonpolar from the msds, that thing is 50% methanol, then another 50% thats mostly ethanol, with a tiny bit of isopropanol lotsa methanol...doesnt sound safe ether maybe try a junk piece with just isopropanol instead of that? from what i heard about acetone, use a tiny bit, like a capful to your vat dont recall which kitbash guide i heard that though
oh my god, i see my posting there and was like, i dont recall saying any of this recently. then i see it was 3 years ago when i worked for a big biotech lab XD
