So guys, i just bought a nice clearboy and i want to dye it with rit. I do know the process involves using acetone,rit dye, and hot water. What i dont know is exactly how much of each and for how long do i let the dye set in. Im going for a dark smoke black color, so i bought navy blue and pure black dyes. i think the dullness of navy blue would help not leave a cooperish tone to the black. If any of your fellow modders have some ideas/guides on how i should go about this i would be forever greatful!!
-spOOked
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CHIPcinnati Ohio
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matt's mind
i've done quite a bit of this, maybe this will help...
i doubt you'll be able to pull off a dark smoke black color. the black dye tends to leave a purple tint. i'm not sure how to direct you to get that color, its really a difficult dye to get to set like this. usually blacks aren't pure black anyways, just so dark its negligible,
but, yeah, your ingredient list is right. you'll use VERY hot water, add the rit dye to this, then add your acetone to the hot water (so you splash water, not acetone). the acetone will lower the boiling temp of the water, so most likely it will boil up a bit so be prepared for this.
DO NOT use a container that the acetone could weaken. any type of plastic. i've found cheap pie plates from the grocery store work really well.
the ratio depends on the few things, i personally used a stronger acetone solution than what a lot of people seem to do but I was doing a bit of these so felt comfortable with doing that. the more acetone, the quicker the plastic is weakened. which means the color takes better, but it also eats at the plastic more.
if you google "rit dye yo-yo" you'll find a bunch of people who colro their yo-yos. use their tutorials, its basically the same process.
you'll get the hang of it after a couple of them.
beware of rit dye clumps. make sure its dissolved well before adding the plastic to the mix.
don't breath in the fumes, they're carcinogenic i believe.
and, this works a lot better if you're able to keep your water temp high for the whole thing. doing it outside is best, but right now its so cold in a lot of places the water cools really quickly. if you do it inside make sure you ventilate like crazy. its really quite unpleasant...
hope that helps! i'm probably leaving something out... i'll chime in if i think of anything important.
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matt's mind
oh. and, try to do all the pieces at the same time if you can. the different water temps make a difference, you'll find as time goes by and the temp lowers the colors take longer to absorbe to the same level.
i'm not sure if this also has to do with some of the pigment being absorbed in the early pieces and this causing some lightening in later ones, but i guess its possible. suspicion of mine, based on nothing but how the water color changes over time.
at the very least, do them in quick succession of one another, with the same batch of water.
(the acetone breaks down the surface integrity of the plastic, allowing the pigment to penetrate)
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CHIPcinnati Ohio
Okay thanks for the help kitsch. I know I probably won't get the perfect color I want just as long as its dark. I'm hoping the navy blue works along with the black. I'm going to do it outside. Hopefully it sets in quickly. Ill post some pictures soon.
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matt's mind
cool!
wear a mask (even outside). its pretty noxious stuff...
also (just to warn you now)....
you may accidentally breath in a tiny bit of the rit powder. its really easy to do this, especially when messing with it in the beginning.
and.... your snot will turn a radical color if this happens. it'll freak you out. for sure.
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Louisiana
See i had the issue of black turning clear cases brown. The gameboy ive modded up with the gears ive dubbed Clock Boy was died with black dye and was in the dye for a good couple of hours and I checked it every 10-15minutes. Did the same with a clear pocket. I think the acetone may have something to do with color quality. Certain amounts may effect it. Not sure but ive heard other people say they got purple also but I always got brown lol
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matt's mind
did you use rit brand?
and, just for curiosities sake, what type of vessel do you use? perhaps my aluminum pie plates react some how differently...
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Louisiana
Yep rit always rit lol. I used the powder ive been thinging about trying a fre mixes using the liquid stuff. As for vessel i used a heavy duty mop bucket, i know plastic =bad but Its all i could get at the time but i also used a sink and got the same results.o_O
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Louisiana
I tries blue and black like hes trying to. It made it darker eer so slightly but thats it. I think to get that smoke black he wants might try to find a dark grey rit and mix it with black or maybe blue. Ive really been meaning to get back into rit testing. Ive been wating a smoke black shell since day one. It would be nice to have a set recipe that is known to work for certain colors
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CHIPcinnati Ohio
Hmm It might be the clearboys plastic itself. It kinda turns yellowish brown when it ages. Idk. I saw pic of thrusday customs dying it with a dark blue on a pocket and it came out pretty cool. I might try blue and gray like your saying.
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Louisiana
Try grey powder and maybe black liquid? Thats a combo i wanted to try. And my clear cases were near mint condit no yellowing what so ever man 
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CHIPcinnati Ohio
Boner wrote:
whoa i like this idea are these dye just made for plastic? can you give me some more details
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Louisiana
Yea like that idea too! Once my money issue is all smoothed out i will def be looking into this more!