Did a project here and thought it would be nice to share it with everyone.

IKIKUINTHENUTZ with another great project! Experiment!

Fast summery of how the idea come to be:
Couldn't find the color tubing I wanted because I searched 2 weeks for it and asking people like Cyberdruid or companies like Saint Goblin (Tygon) who said they don't carry it, don't know,or never seen it. I was looking for Transparent black water cooling tubing. The tubing is for my IKIKUINTHENUTZized Navig Tech Station. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=228794

I found something called Rit Liquid Dye while doing my laundry. I read the information and figure WHY NOT!

Materials used for this project:
  • A pot you will never use again
  • Rit Dye Concentrated
  • Water
  • Non Iodine Salt
  • A metal tong/strainer
  • A stove
  • Tygon R3603 1/2in. ID 5/8in. OD Laboratory Tubing cut into pieces




Directions are straight forward. What I did here is testing out with Black dye to see the results much easier.

Water in the pot with one cap of the dye. Do not put a lot of the dye in the water, the stuff is extremely dense. Sorry no measurements, I will assume I put 6 cups of water and one cap of the dye.

Put tablespoon of salt to help activate the dye and increase required temperatures to boil.

Heat it up on high until rolling boil


Once it starts rolling boil, turn off the stove and move the pot else where on to a cooler surface. Use a strainer or clamp to carry the tube in place and simply dip and stir it in while it is hot. Do not let the tube fall to the bottom or pinch the tubing while it is hot or it will make the tube warp into a different shape.


Now depending how long you leave it in the dye, your results will vary and you need to experiment on cut pieces so you know how long to leave in the tube to get your desired color before doing large pieces.

Once you think it's ready, remove it and simply flush it with tap water in a sink.

Here are some examples all next to the non dyed tubing



Now I inserted my Bitspower barbs to help you see the transparency. Each one of these represent how long I left it in the dye.

No Dip, MFG original


7 seconds


15 seconds


30 seconds


30 seconds with a re dip after flushing of 20 seconds


The last image was the tube a bit warped because I accidentally pinched it when it was real hot with the tongs.

Maybe everyone here can experiment with different Rit Dye colors, different brands of tubing, and with different results to share. Try it out if you want tubing in the color you want that you can't find.

MAKE SURE THE TUBING YOU USE HAVE HIGH HEAT TOLERANCE LIKE TYGON LABS OR YOU WILL HAVE A MESS TO CLEAN UP

Also to note that I haven't testing the tubing to see if the dye leeches out. However I will note that washing it with soap and water will not remove the dye.