dyeing polycarbonate

Yo-Yo Mods and Maintenance
1

Can someone point me towards the direction of dyeing say, a yyf one?
Thanks

…SSsssss…

2

I thought ones were polycarbonate, but I personally emailed yoyofactory an inquiry about the material and was told it was an acetal plastic (i.e. celcon).
To dye celcon/delrin bring a kettle or pot of water to boiling and pour it into a soup can or glass jar that has an open pack of Rit dye in it. Pouring the boiling water over the dye powder will cause it to mix and dissolve instantly without much need for stirring. Dunk the yoyo for 10-15 seconds and pull it up to check for desired tint. Work relatively fast before the water cools, but not too fast that you burn yourself :wink: I use the same afore mentioned process to dye my mods. Polycarbonate yoyos like a protostar will require a different process.
http://yoyoexpert.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=47008.0;attach=10103

3

That’s pretty easy. I may need to try that sometime.

4

To put designs on it what do you use? I play lacrosse and I know to dye a lacrosse head we put hot glue on it the. Peel it off. Do you do the same?

5

Yep.

Yay for lax!

6

Woo hoo!! Haha, I can actually do something I’ve done before!

7

I like clean lines when I mask. I use stickers from any scrapbook section or cut designs out of laminating strips with an exaco knife. The above was masked with a cursive font style of scrapbook stickers :wink:

8

See I was thinking stickers…but thought they would dissolve/peel in the dye and hot water. Does it need to be a plastic sticker or laminate instead of paper then?

I wanna dye my neon asteroid super dark with a neon yellow design on it. It’ll be rad.

9

Do you know if Whips are also acetal? The reason I ask is that I wanted to dye both my One and Whip and tried the One first under the impression that it was polycarbonate (some guide said it was). I followed the directions for dyeing polycarbonate and it wasn’t working (now I know why) and ruined the yoyo in the process. I want to be sure that I’m doing it right when I try the Whip.

10

Wait wait wait… You ruined the yoyo? You ruined it in hot water…and dye? Your definition or “ruin” must be different than mine???

11

If he followed the directions for polycarb, he probably used acetone. That’s the common solution for that type of plastic.

12

I said I thought it was polycarbonate but apparently it isn’t. You don’t just use hot water and dye for polycarbonate, you use acetone. If you just used hot water and dye for polycarbonate, why would it matter if the yoyo was polycarbonate or acetal? There would be no point in me asking which plastic the Whip was.

13

One=celcon
Whip=polycarbonate

14

Thank you! Now I can try to dye it with confidence.

15

Hey, I have a yoyo that I know is polycarbonate, but it’s black. I want to dye it a light color. Should I just leave it in the dye a little longer?

16

You can dye from a light color to a dark color, but not the other way, especially black.

1 Like
17

If I get a blue ONE, and I put scrapbook stickers on (like purp said) can I dye it white or a lighter blue?

…SSsssss…

18

Think about coloring a piece of black paper with a yellow marker :-\ paper doesn’t get lighter does it? You can never dye from dark to light

1 Like
19

i tryed to dye my yyf one (as polycarbonate) and i it helped my satin job

20

huh… I tried this method on my original yyj fiesta (white to green before they came out with the green) and it didnt do anything. Any ideas why it didnt work?