• Cambridge, MA

I want to turn my gray DMG into a sexy black DMG but I don't want to cover up the text. Also, the Krylon X-Metals paint that Thretris posted doesn't come in black. sad So I was looking around online at possible dyeing techniques, and found the RIT dye method.

RIT Method:
1. Empty 2 RIT packets into glass container.
2. Add 3/4 cup water. Mix.
3. Add 1/4 cup acetone. Mix.
4. Dunk object.

Is this the way to go? I'm a little wary of dyeing it as I'm afraid it might not come out nice and even and the acetone might just eat away the plastic if I'm not careful. Should I try RIT Dyeing it, or just suck it up and spray paint it? Any Pros/Cons with either method? Thanks! smile

  • matt's mind

no!  that recipe is crazy......

the proportion of water:acetone is just around half and half, but you can go less too.

ok, here we go:

1. empty 1 pack in to a glass OR metal container
2. pour in near boiling water
3. pour in almost equal amount of acetone.  the water will boil a second because the acetone will lower the boiling temperature...
4. wait till it stops churning.  it won't take long
5. submerge your plastic
6. when it reaches the shae you want, take it out and wash it in cold water
7. set aside so the plastic can cure again

a couple things to consider

1. acetone isn't good for your health, at all.  please wear gloves and a mask, and preferably do this outdoors (if its not too cold)
2. you may find methods online that tell you to stick this all in the microwave.  ignore them.
3. use something not too hard to get the plastic out of the acetone, because the top layer of plastic will be very soft.  you can dent and scrape it then until its cured.

i hope this somewhat helps out...  honestly, i wouldn't start out with but 2:1 water:acetone, until you learn what is going on.  it took a bit of effort for me to be able to get a nice result from this.  i melted a few.

and, the instructions for yo-yo dying online are a good place to start, but the plastic is generally different from the harder plastic used in yo-yos. 

i'm blabbing.  let us know how it works out...

i forgot a couple more things...

1. do NOT inhale the rit powder.  you'll have brightly colored boogies for a few days (i thought something was seriously wrong with me when i sneezed up black after doing this without a mask).  the powder is very small, and easily catches wind drafts...
2) MIX WELL!  if the rit is clumpy in the water at all, it'll show up on the plastic

kitsch wrote:

1. do NOT inhale the rit powder.  you'll have brightly colored boogies for a few days (i thought something was seriously wrong with me when i sneezed up black after doing this without a mask).

just got a scene from "District 9" in my head there

  • SLC, UT
kitsch wrote:

no!  that recipe is crazy......
1. do NOT inhale the rit powder.  you'll have brightly colored boogies for a few days (i thought something was seriously wrong with me when i sneezed up black after doing this without a mask).  the powder is very small, and easily catches wind drafts...

I LOL'ed.

I'd just suck it up and spray paint it. I'd imagine it will be pretty hard to see the text if it's on a black background anyways. I painted mine black with the krylon fusion with a coat of clear gloss and it's the tits. Although it kind of stinks...as in literally, it smells bad.

Is it possible to dye the rubber Start/Select buttons with that RIT?

  • matt's mind

the acetone always destroyed mine.  either just ate at it if the mix was too strong, or it remained sticky afterwards even after a repeated soak.  the silicon doesn't respond well...

So there's no way to color those at all?

  • Matthew Joseph Payne

just try it without acetone, probably even less dye

edit: this is not speaking from experience, it's just an educated guess smile

Last edited by kineticturtle (October 20, 2010 8:36 pm)

  • Cambridge, MA

Thanks so much! That's extremely helpful. I'm picking up a few more cases so hopefully I'll at least get a couple nice ones out of it. Also, any paint suggestions for detailing on the dmg?

  • SLC, UT

Something amazing that hasn't been done yet. I should post mine, it's nothing amazing by any means, but I haven't really seen anyone else do something similar.

  • Cambridge, MA

Itunes Visualizer has inspired me. I'm gonna put something like this on it: big_smile

  • SLC, UT
BetaSynapse wrote:

Itunes Visualizer has inspired me. I'm gonna put something like this on it: big_smile

That's rad, that's what I was talking about. It reminds me of early vector games.

  • ASM Retro

Black doesn't dye well. I wouldn't try it. But I guess you could always just paint it if it fails. It may come out brown.

And don't use any acetone. The plastic doesn't need it. Every dyed DMG I see has white acetone burns in it.
I think the acetone method is more ideal for very glossy plastic that can't absorb the dye.

  • Cambridge, MA

Gah, alright. Officially scared away from using dye on my precious DMGs. Krylon spray paints as second option?

  • Matthew Joseph Payne

I'm a very short distance into my personal experiments with dye and DMGs, but so far so good, and I did use acetone and I did notice that it made a difference. When I have more shells (soon) I will experiment without because I respect Apeshit, but I didn't find it to be too much of a trouble. No burns. I do need to learn how to get the dye to set more evenly, maybe that is acetone related. They look good though. More experiments ahead...

  • Westfield, NJ

There's a reason people will pay for black DMGs rather than trying to dye some other color to be black.