Dylon dyeing of PBT caps; more experiments

[Kurk]

First of all, it seems that Dylon has stopped selling its multi-purpose dye in small quantities which, if true, is very unfortunate. Only the 500 g pots are shown on Dylon's web page under "Industrial products". Hopefully, they come up with another product for synthetic fabric. Anyway, there are still plenty of web shops that sell the original small tins. Furthermore, Jacquard's iDye Poly looks like a viable alternative.

Nevertheless, I have been back in the kitchen for some more experiments on dyeing PBT caps with Dylon. For my first dyeing session have a look here. After the first session, I was especially interested in whether or not the addition of salt is needed for getting the dye into the caps. Therefore I omitted this additive this time. There was also the question if ABS caps could be dyed via this method so a I threw an ABS double shot cap into one of the colour brews.

The general procedure was as follows:
The dye (4.5 g Dylon multi purpose) was dissolved in 1 liter of boiling tap water inside a thoroghly cleaned (scouring cream) stainless steal pan. The dye bath was allowed to cool to 70 °C (thermometer) before the clean key caps were added. The caps were fully immersed in the bath with constant, gentle stirring while the temperature was kept at 70 °C. Afterwards, the caps were rinsed with plenty of warm water.

Results:
Dylon 33 "Kingfisher": 10 min contact time resulted in a light blue. An ABS cap hardly cought any of the dye.
Dylon 26 "Jungle Green": 35 min contact time resulted in a deep green-blue.
Dylon 12 "Rose of Paris": 10 min contact time resulted in a light pink.
Dylon 5 "Havana Brown": 35 min contact time resulted in a deep brown with a greenish hue.

Conclusions:
-The addition of salt is not necessary for dyeing PBT caps.
-A temperature of 70 °C seems to be sufficient.
-ABS plastic cannot be dyed efficiently with this method.

Dylon dyes used.

Dylon_exp_2-01_dyes.jpg (108.08 KiB) Viewed 17059 times

The setup. Note my new thermometer.

Dylon_exp_2-02_setup.jpg (269.93 KiB) Viewed 17059 times

A bunch of colourful caps.

Dylon_exp_2-03_results1.jpg (385.3 KiB) Viewed 17059 times

Caps on a board. I know, it's approaching unicorn vomit level. Note that I tried to get a colour gradient over F1 to F12. Didn't work out as expected. Light green and red are from dyeing session 1.

Dylon_exp_2-04_results2.jpg (264.82 KiB) Viewed 17059 times

Overview of results. I forgot the brown caps - d'oh!

Dylon_exp_2-05_overview.jpg (210.38 KiB) Viewed 17059 times

[pheo]

They look really nice! is there any recommendation for dyeing ABS? I have a general fabrics dye I bought I dont know if it will works.

[Jmneuv]

This pot of caps looks so yummy, makes me want to crunch away at them.
Also those dye pots are so beautiful.

I don't think that it's going to be fruitful to try on abs.

[rodtang]

People have dyed ABS by adding acetone to the mix, don't know if anyone has tried it with keycaps though.

[guilleguillaume]

I have some ABS Cherry double-shot keycaps that came with a set I bought at GH and they are Dyed in Red and Yellow. May have to take some pictures for you.

[rodtang]

http://www.overclock.net/t/551389/keybo ... tion-guide
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=496 ... #msg110016

[guilleguillaume]

No need to take pictures at all

This is the set I got from Danielucf:

[Kurk]

Yes, seems like ABS can be dyed. But fact is that it takes up the dye much more slowly than PBT. Looking at the caps in your pictures I would say that the colour is unevenly distributed, especially in the case of the purple and yellow caps.

[probson]

First of all, it seems that Dylon has stopped selling its multi-purpose dye in small quantities which, if true, is very unfortunate. Only the 500 g pots are shown on Dylon's web page under "Industrial products". Hopefully, they come up with another product for synthetic fabric.

There is an online shop who sells all Dylon multi-purpose dye colors world wide: PATIN-A costume supplies
http://www.patin-a.de/pi/en/Dylon-Multi ... ml#Ziel382

[Thvle]

Guys, here my results with Kingfisher nº33 Dylon:



The color is different than #1, not? Why? I left 15 minutes stirring constantly.

What color tint recommend me other keys?

[Kurk]

Congrats on your IBM caps, they are looking good. It seems that the space bar has a slightly different colour tone, is that the case?

[Thvle]

Congrats on your IBM caps, they are looking good. It seems that the space bar has a slightly different colour tone, is that the case?

No, its de same

[Kurk]

I've tried Dylon on a set of thick IMSTO dye sub caps. Not such a great idea as it turned out...
I followed the recipe of post #1, one tin (4.5 g) of Dylon No 26 Jungle Green in 1 L water at 70 °C. Initially, I was going for 5 min contact time but right away it became apparent that the caps didn't take up the dye evenly. I let them simmer for some additional time hoping that the color would even out. But, alas, the shade difference persisted. See here the result after 12 min.
It's not dramatic but the color difference is very notable even under bad lighting conditions. The areas of the legends display a lighter shade of blue than the rest of the caps. You can spot it on the tops of the 1U keys and especially well on keys that are much larger than their legends, i.e. shift and enter. My guess is that the dye subbing process changes the structure of the plastic or its surface, probably due to some heat treatment.
My only previous experience with dyeing dye-subbed keys were with IBM model M 1U caps. I didn't notice any shade differences there.
BTW, the enter key is a special case. Not only does it have a shade difference but also some some specks that look like plastic defects. Such imperfections are normally found around the sprue marks.

[cookie]

Hey there, thanks a ton for this workshop! It helped me a lot but I have a question. After testing my desired color on some Cherry caps I decided to dye the caps of my HHKB Pro1 and it turned out okay but unfortunately some caps soak up the dye unevenly... So is there a method to get the Dye out of the caps? I'd like to redye them once again but I am afraight that the caps will turn out to dark if I throw them in again

[RaleghDirat]

I've used dylon on ibm keycaps recently, if you want to check how it came up: http://deskthority.net/marketplace-f11/ ... t7818.html
No experience with HHKB keys, but my guess is you can't remove the dye, and only can go to darker shades not lighter.

[cookie]

Man your results are verry nice!
I am afraight that this will be the case... that I only can go darker If nothing helps my last resort is to dye them black for a couple of hours. but the Color I currenly have is quite nice! I need to add a few pictures tho.

If I let the caps in the dye for a long time is there a certain point where the cap will not turn darker? I mean when you dye it for example in a red for couple hours, it can't be that it turn out dark brown or something?

Thanks for your answer!

[RaleghDirat]

I've only used emerald and did boil the caps as per dealer instructions about 10 minutes.
My first approach was based in this thread info and tried to keep the temperature around 70 ºC. It was taking too long and the color was not very defined, so I decided to let boil with constant stirring (watching for cap deformation regularly).
If you start with white caps there will be a point in time the dye will saturate the pbt surface and hopefully "almost" match the dye "specified" color. Anyway, I'm no chemist and this is my idea of how it should behave.

[cookie]

The next thing I will try ist to clear the caps propperly, sand them a bit, and try to sandblast the top of the caps. They have a little bit of shine but they are almost 10 years in heavy use so it's okay.

Then I will throw them back in, maybe with a higher temperature and hope that the color will soak up evenly.

[justcallmecrash]

One of the things I've found most helpful on keys that have seen some use is giving them a 90% alcohol bath, then rinsing them before trying to dye.
Nice results, by the way.

[RaleghDirat]

A few days work to get to this...
My take of the handarbeit (it is a DE set but I "adapted" the blue for PO, hence 2 more blue caps):



This was done with dylon:
02 - golden glow
25 - emerald
33 - kingfisher
09 - pagoda red
34 - olive green
15 - windsor purple
39 - tangerine
12 - rose of paris

The purple is very dark, will have to try with 18 - Madonna Blue, if I can find it...

[lot_lizard]

I know I am necro-ing this thread, but I am curious how the durability of these dyes has held up. It's been a couple of years, which would be sufficient burn-in I would think... assuming you are using these boards still and they haven't become storage queens. Any fading from sunlight, wear from use, etc...

Why I am interested (and the posts preceding): workshop-f7/remodeling-the-model-m-t13796.html#p330465

[fohat]

I keep going back to post #14 in this thread:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=35 ... #msg664178

[lot_lizard]

I keep going back to post #14 in this thread:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=35 ... #msg664178

I agree... especially with what we are doing now for marking. The one sample I have in my hand really looks impressive. I am just curious how this stuff wears. At best it is a thin layer (but so is the PBT dye-sub of the fonts if that says anything). I know the preliminary results look great. I just want to know how they look 2 years later after some UV and use.

[fohat]

I am just curious how this stuff wears.

I just want to know how they look 2 years later after some UV and use.

That thread was from 2012 and I am still using caps that I had dyed back in those days and they appear to show no wear or fade (although if they faded consistently I wouldn't know, right?).

I was using old-formula RIT powdered dye, which apparently changed somewhere around 2010-2011 (for the worse) but I do have some green ones that I did with iPoly.

[lot_lizard]

That thread was from 2012 and I am still using caps that I had dyed back in those days and they appear to show no wear or fade (although if they faded consistently I wouldn't know, right?)

Good to know... thanks for the feedback. We will proceed in the other thread = tally-ho!!!

[themrdave]

I should try dyeing my POMs keycaps.. I wonder what temperature should I use. I was also waiting for an excuse to buy a new termometer