Rit Dye nose cones

[RodRocket]

Back when I did r/c cars, there was a technique where you could add color to the white nylon plastic parts by using common Rit dyes.

We simply boiled the part in the dye until the color wanted was achieved.

Could this be used to color the nose cones from Madcow and others? Has anyone already tried it?

I don't know if it will work with the Estes plastic cones, but those are easy to paint with plastic model paint.

Thought about taking the trimmed off shock cord mount part from a nose cone and giving it a try.

If I remember right, I just used a simple large coffee can and filled about half way, then added the dye to the hot water.

Tied all the parts together with a string and hang them in the dye water checking them often until I had the color I wanted.

The cars I did this to have been long gone but seems like the plastic in these nose cones is similar. But I guess a test would be needed to see if the nose cone could handle being boiled.

Guess I have another winter experiment to try.

See ya,
Rod

 

[dave carver]

I don't know. I've had them deform from the heat of expanding foam. Interesting idea, though. The cones are PVC, ABS I think, and styrene in the case of Estes.

 

[tightwad]

Very interesting idea. You might have to allow the boiled water/dye cool at tad, to prevent distortion of the nose cone, then soak the nose cone in it. If you are like the most of us, you may have a used nc laying around. Experiment!, experiment!, experiment!...experiment! What do you have to lose?

 

[blackbrandt]

What about filling the inside of the cone with cold water or ice? Would that help with the heat?

 

[RodRocket]

The plastic Estes cones are easy to sand smooth and paint. I believe those are styrene plastic. Much like a plastic model car.
It's the tougher plastic in the Madcow, Aerotech and the like that seem to not like paint.

Now that I have thought about it, I remember I didn't have the dye water actually boiling, just plenty hot to get the dye into the nylon parts.

Guess I will do a test on a nose cone like in the Madcow kits. If it works or fails, I will report back.

 

[RodRocket]

Paint is just on the surface of the plastic, where the dye actually penetrates into the plastic. Longer part was left in dye, deeper and darker the color was. I had broken dyed parts where the dye was nearly completely through the plastic.

With a nose cone, it might get scratched up, but it will still look good.

I don't have any spare cones but will buy a couple and give it a try.

Gotta get a thermometer and see how hot I need to go to get color to work without destroying the cone.

 

[kelltym88]

There really is only one way to find out......

 

[isobig]

I had thought about doing this exact same thing with the dye but never did. I look forward to hearing if it works or not.

 

[etoyoc]

Has any one tested this yet? It looks like some websites are listing a temp of 140, I wouldn't think that would be likely to deform the cones. I just finished scraping and sanding the paint off a failed paint job on two LOC nose cones and would love to hear that this works.

 

[etoyoc]

Well... LOC nosecones won't take the RIT dye.

 

[kjohnson]

You may need to try a different type of dye. See the article on dyeing Mylar here:
https://www.narhams.org/zog-43/v33/zog43_v33n01_201101.pdf

kj

 

[Coop]

I'm VERY interested in this possibility.

ETOYOC: What prep methods did you use before trying to dye the LOC NC? Which one was it? Did you use the 140 degree you mentioned before, or something else? Was it RIT, or another brand? What color?

(yes, I'm in full-out geek mode)



Later!

--Coop

 

[chadrog]

What if you filled the cone with foam before the dying process? Would that maybe keep it from distorting from heat?

 

[Coop]

Good point.


Later!

--Coop

 

[etoyoc]

I'm VERY interested in this possibility.

ETOYOC: What prep methods did you use before trying to dye the LOC NC? Which one was it? Did you use the 140 degree you mentioned before, or something else? Was it RIT, or another brand? What color?

(yes, I'm in full-out geek mode)



Later!

--Coop

I used blacK rit dye. I tried an unsanded cone (but washed to degrease) as well as a cone that had previously been washed, sanded, primed, and had a failed paint job removed. Both nose cones were the same model LOC PNC 2.14 (https://shop.locprecision.com/product.sc?productId=168) Of course, now that I look at that link, LOC lists this as a polyprolene (they spelled it that way - is it the same stuff as polypropylene???). A quick look online shows polypropylene "as difficult to dye, and practically insoluble in cold organic solvents."

I did not add any acetone or salt or any other chemical to try to increase the absorption. I was simply checking to see if RIT and water would be enough.

I heated the water to near boiling and added it to a tall plastic container that I would toss out later. However, in order to find a container tall enough for the nose cones, I went with cutting the top off of a two liter bottle. I don't know what I was thinking, I forgot that PET plastic shrinks when hot. Needless to say, the plastic shrunk and suddenly it was holding more dye solution than was possible and I just made a mess. I didn't have anything else that was large enough on hand so I used an old dish pan and decided to go for both nose cones at the same time. So, I heated up some water again. However, I needed three quarts of water and I only had one small pack of dye left (which I used the whole pack). The nose cones were weighted down to keep them under the water. The water started off at about 150 degrees. I know that on some plastics this can be done at 140 and I was confident that 150 wouldn't distort the cones (and it didn't). However, the dye did not penetrate the plastic at all. Even after sitting for almost an hour, I would easy wash off the slight grey that was on the cones. On the other hand, the few little bits of primer that I had missed sanding off the one cone showed up easily as dark gray.

 

[Coop]

Aaah... excellent. Thanks!


Later!

--Coop

 

[Coop]

To be clear--the "excellent" was regarding your effort, methods, considerations, and sharing of results... not the lack of success in the attempt...


Later!

--Coop