General Yoyo Thoughts

ok, I don’t know much about dying throws but the dark color might have somthing to do with it

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That’s an awesome design!!

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Thanks. I call it the Avenger Mk. VI, but I don’t know if that pattern could be anodized accurately.

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What kind of plastic is it? The process for dying poly carb plastic differs from Delrin or Celcon.

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i checked… Plastic, lmao. i’ll do more research.

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You do not need to use acetone, and you especially shouldn’t be boiling it.

See: Yoyo dyeing discussion thread

For dyemore you do need to heat the dye though, just below boiling (do not add acetone or any other solvent, it’s dangerous)

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Delrin and Celcon are “plastic” as is poly carb, and a number of other “plastics.” But they all require different methods. Poly carb uses acetone, some others (delrin, celcon) don’t.

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This is unnecessary with modern synthetic dyes. Acetone is a dangerous solvent and folks shouldn’t be using it for this purpose.

See: Reddit - Dive into anything for a process that goes without acetone and has good results.

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so just heat the dye with some water? does it matter if i get it below boiling combined with the water? or get it hot then add it?

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Did you read the guide I linked to on reddit? It explains every step in order. Goog is the master of this.

I just know that heating acetone is a bad idea

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Reddit doesn’t work on the PC i usually use, but i’ll look at it in a bit.

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Here’s the whole post:

Guide to dying polycarb yoyos

googahgee

7 points · 1 year ago · edited 1 year ago

Hey! Dyeing yoyos is pretty easy, you just have to buy the dye and use a pot you don’t plan on using for food in the future (if you already have a pot for non-food stuff, that’s good). It should be relatively small, all it needs is to be deep enough to dip a yoyo into while only being half-full of water to avoid any boiling over.

Alright, so here is an example of some dye jobs I’ve done on clear yoyos, specifically the pawn by 2Sickyoyos. You can do a fade by doing different colors, just dip one side into one color of dye and the other side into the other color. You can mask off areas with hot glue, elmer’s or other substances (some stickers work but they can’t fall off), and they won’t receive the dye. This is good for making patterns, although on clear yoyos it can less apparent due to the scattering of light through the plastic. For any kind of glue you just want to make sure it’s dry before you dip it in. Elmer’s is cheap and easy to remove but might get kinda wishy-washy in the water and takes a long time to dry, while hot glue requires a hot glue gun and can be frustrating to clean off afterwards (sometimes it sucks, other times it comes off extremely cleanly).

Here’s a little walkthrough of dyeing yoyos:

1: Fill up a small pan about halfway with water, it should be deep enough to dip a yoyo in and have 1-2 inches above the top of the yoyo. (don’t actually dip a yoyo in to check, just eyeball it).
2: Mix your dye into the water. There are different types of dyes, but for any kind of plastic yoyos, you want synthetic fabric dye (it would say polyester, nylon dye is different). Some good brands are idle poly and RIT dyemore synthetic . The iDye comes in pouches that contain a dissolvable packet and a packet of a color intensifier liquid. When you mix this in, toss the dye into the water and let it dissolve and then stir with something you want to dedicate to yoyo dye, such as disposable chopsticks or a paint stirring stick, and then empty the color intensifier liquid into the dye water. For the RIT DyeMore, just put about half the bottle in. I’m not entirely sure, I bought some but haven’t used it yet. Most of the color control comes from your timing anyway.
3: Once your dye is all mixed in, you want to bring the liquid to a low boil, or at least to the point where it starts steaming ever so slightly. The dye needs to be hot for the plastic to take it.
4: Take the yoyo apart and dip it into the dye one half at a time, making sure it’s vertical, and hold it there while the color goes into the plastic. For this step, it really helps to have something to attach the yoyo halves to, I have some pieces of scrap wood that I’ve drilled holes in and run an M4-sized set screw through (this is the size of yoyo axles, and you can just screw the yoyo onto it). During this step be sure to take it out of the dye and check to see if it’s a color you like. Because of the liquid dye still on it, it may look darker than it actually is, so you might want to rinse it off gently just to make sure it’s the color you want. If you want to go darker, dry it just enough to get rid of any big water droplets before putting it back in (They mess with the color, making it uneven if you’re going for a straight fade. If you’re doing one color it’s fine). Additionally, hotter water will make it dye faster, but if it’s boiling too much it might make the color uneven.
5: Once you’ve got all the color you want applied, turn the heat off (duh) and rinse everything off the yoyo. Sometimes you may have tiny pieces of dye powder stuck to the yoyo, and this can be frustrating because it can mess with your color. (Note: if you see something like a big clump of dye stick to the yoyo during dyeing, rinse it off immediately to keep it from making a very dark spot). You’ll also want to take a paper towel and wipe off any metal surfaces, as dye may have stuck to them. If there’s still color stuck to something like a metal ring or the hub of the yoyo, wipe it with some isopropyl alcohol on a paper towel. Make sure to dry out the hub of the yoyo to avoid any oxidation in the threads, that stuff is annoying. At this point you’d also want to remove any masking you put on the yoyo, and just clean it up to make it presentable.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting to make such a long writeup on this tonight, but I guess I had fun! I think I might post this on the subreddit. I hope this helps you!

OH! SOME WARNINGS!!! Hot dye can color something instantly! Always be sure to cool your dye down before disposing of it or pouring it into a jar to save, and definitely don’t pour it into a sink made of plastic. Nope, only an idiot would ever do that, haha…
side-warning: pay attention to your dye at all times. If instead of boiling smoothly, it has loud pops and rumbles, be extremely careful, because it might explode, getting everywhere. Definitely haven’t gotten dye on my ceiling before or anything, nope…

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@ColinBecko is there going to be a live tonight?

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I don’t think so, there usually are not lives on Tuesday and he never announced anything

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  • i love flat bearings
  • i hate flat bearings

0 voters

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I would rather have had the word prefer used rather than hate. I don’t hate flat bearings, I just much prefer centering bearings.

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I agree. Right tool for the job.

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I love all the bearings though, as long as they spin.

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There should be a third option for “I’m okay with them.” I started off on tiny flat bearings and still enjoy them depending on the yoyo and mood.

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