Quote:
Originally Posted by chans formers
thats some good info jourdo!as soon as im ready to make a big black mess making tfsoup,ill be thinking of u!!  i aso heard that certain parts cant take the heat of dipping/dying and end up melting.has that happened to you yet? |
I have heard about the melting thing, but have not come across this myself (yet). The first time I tried dying, I practiced on some cheap RISK playing pieces. These were a very soft plastic and came out fine (no distortion).
The way I do it (as it works for me) is:
1. Mix the dye, water, and acetone. I cannot remember the exact recepie... basically enough acetone to allow the plastic to take up the dye. I really need to write it down one of these days. As for the water... enough to cover your parts. The RIT dye is meant to go in the laundry, so it will be fairly concentrated when you use it.
2. Heat the mixture until it gets hot (not boiling). Essentially when the steam starts to come up.
3. Take it off the burner and throw in your parts. This is where the dippers and dunkers differ. You can either dip the parts into the soup until you get the colour you want... OR... throw them in and keep stirring (to prevent them from staying against the hot pot surface too long) until you get them nice and dark.
I think this batch stayed in the dye for 20 or 30 minutes. I find dying easier than painting... especially when you are going for a dark colour. The dye gets taken up quite well, and generally looks pretty good... although this batch turned out a little wavey for my liking (maybe my acetone to water mix?).
I have never had a distortion problem with this method. The distortion this time around for me was due to the plastic melting while trying to remove a pin with a soldering iron. I knew it would be a problem before the dying process... I just did not realize how bad.
