How to dye water cooling tubing *Experiment*IKIKUINTHENUTZ

[IKIKUINTHENUTZ]

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.

[heinz357]

Awesome bit of researching there!! Don't suppose you know offhand if Rit produce UV reactive dyes at all??

[Waterlogged]

Very cool! Thanks for experimenting

I particularly like the way 15 and 30 seconds look and 7 seconds doesn't look too bad either. I may have to look into trying this myself.

[wondergod]

great, although may I suggest closing the ends so dye does not get on the inside and only on the outside? Wonder if it would have the same affect without the worry of the dye getting in your actual loop.

[faster3200]

Excellent post.

Sub'd to make sure I don't loose it.

I can imagine doing some creative things playing with dye concentration in different areas.

[IKIKUINTHENUTZ]

Awesome bit of researching there!! Don't suppose you know offhand if Rit produce UV reactive dyes at all??

I wish Maybe I can find a UV additive and see what happens?

great, although may I suggest closing the ends so dye does not get on the inside and only on the outside? Wonder if it would have the same affect without the worry of the dye getting in your actual loop.

I got a interesting reply at OCF, maybe this would go well with the idea http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php...94&postcount=2

I can imagine doing some creative things playing with dye concentration in different areas.

Tee hee I got some ideas in my head, I just need to await my damn $1 dye from Xoxide Out of Business sale

[nkresho]

Nice bit of research and a good idea.

Just be careful what it touches. That dye is not 100% permanent.

I've used rit in the past on clothing. I know, for a fact, that if you wash an item dyed with it, with other clothes, the dye will transfer and your laundry will be ruined. Even after quite a few washes alone (10 or so) it sill gets the other clothes.

It may stain your blocks and pump internals due to this fact too.

Just warning you, i don't mean to sound rude or anything.

[IKIKUINTHENUTZ]

Originally Posted by nkresho

Nice bit of research and a good idea.

Just be careful what it touches. That dye is not 100% permanent.

I've used rit in the past on clothing. I know, for a fact, that if you wash an item dyed with it, with other clothes, the dye will transfer and your laundry will be ruined. Even after quite a few washes alone (10 or so) it sill gets the other clothes.

It may stain your blocks and pump internals due to this fact too.

Just warning you, i don't mean to sound rude or anything.

I don't think clothes have the same chemical materials in a Tygon tubing which I think the characteristics may be different.

Interesting to say that because when you dyed your clothes, what method did you use? I do know the washer machine dye method sucks ass though and any cold water way. Plus I normally hand wash dyed clothing for fear of bleeding.

Now I did decide to google up a bit on dying plastics with rit + heat and next thing you know I ran into this very fun keyboard mod on OCN
http://www.overclock.net/computer-pe...ion-guide.html

After reading a bit, these 2 post caught my interest on the subject matter
http://www.overclock.net/6842819-post23.html
http://www.overclock.net/6842834-post25.html

I decided to do a cross section on the 30 second tube


Dye did not penetrate inside because not enough time had lapse.

Is anyone here willing to run a complete loop for days with dyed watertubing + distilled water? I don't have water blocks to do this

[Boogerlad]

As long as the stuff doesn't get inside, it's fine right?

[IKIKUINTHENUTZ]

Originally Posted by Boogerlad

As long as the stuff doesn't get inside, it's fine right?

We don't know until someone test the hypothesis out that the dye will bleed after running X amount of days in a warm water cooling setup and stain stuff.

Personally it sounds safe to me that if the tubing was dyed without the dye going inside the tube sealed up during the process with some sort of sealant, it wouldn't matter about bleeding.

[nkresho]

Originally Posted by IKIKUINTHENUTZ

I don't think clothes have the same chemical materials in a Tygon tubing which I think the characteristics may be different.

Interesting to say that because when you dyed your clothes, what method did you use? I do know the washer machine dye method sucks ass though and any cold water way. Plus I normally hand wash dyed clothing for fear of bleeding.

I used a very similar method for some cotton jeans as well as a few cotton and cotton/poly tee shirts. I boiled a pot of water and put the clothes as I turned off the stove. I stirred to get all the bubbles out and let it sit until it was cooled off. After rinsing a few times, everything went to the laundrymat to get the extra dye out. A few washes later and they were good to go. Although the dye did eventually fade quite a bit. Moreso than regular store-bought colored clothes.

I do like your cross section idea though. If you can get a bit of color penetration you should be fine. Especially since you're leaning toward dying the outside.

[Vapor]

I dyed a couple lacrosse heads with RIT...not sure what plastic they are, but there was no way to intentionally fade it and it never seemed to fade on its own after use and abuse, even after years. The scoop edge of the heads would scrape down after awhile (especially after playing on pavement/concrete), showing the white they originally were, but that's expected.

I'd be willing to try running it for awhile...but I have no extra pump at the time.

I'm really curious what Tygon Silver (my favorite tubing...LRT Pro being a very close second) would look like with the outside dyed

[Equinediver]

Definately an interesting test, but after knackering a load of tubing and a rad, not to count the hours spent cleaning my pump, blocks and res from using a dye bomb, will let others try this out.

But was wondering if these plugs would stop the dye from getting inside the tubes

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=23879

I find them great for when you want to make changes and don't want to drain your whole loop.

[momomo6789]

couldn't you just plug the ends of the tubes so no dye gets inside then there would be no transfer of dye to your loop ? might take longer to dye but seems like it would be worth it .

[IKIKUINTHENUTZ]

Originally Posted by momomo6789

couldn't you just plug the ends of the tubes so no dye gets inside then there would be no transfer of dye to your loop ? might take longer to dye but seems like it would be worth it .

The plugs would have to be either metal or a type of plastic that doesn't melt or shrink in boiling water.

Hell, add some sand inside too to prevent the tubing getting pinched or kinked during the process.

(I wonder if that's what viper john used to make his famous U bends lol)

as a side note, anyone know any UV dyes that used for clothing? I feel like trying that stuff out.

[Vapor]

Two concerns with using plugs (one with sand, one without).

Concern one, no sand, just air: The air would want to expand considerably if it heats up and would increase internal pressure and might pop off of a plug (and all the problems that would cause) or just burst through the weakened tubing (bigger problem, lol). Considering how poor of a thermal conductor tubing is and how brief the exposure to the boiling water is, that might not be an issue though.

Concern two, using sand to occupy the space: the weakened/softened tubing might take the form of sand (especially if the grains are large) and would create bumps on the interior walls--leading to significantly increased turbulence (and therefore a likely increase in restriction). Yeah, it would take tubing from "non-factor" to "minimal factor" in overall loop flowrates, but still

Filling the entire tube with water and sealing the ends might be the way to go Or use extremely fine grained sand

EDIT: Concern three: it wouldn't be very easy to do a long length of tubing, would it? You might need to coil it tight enough so it can fit in the pot and contain it with string or something that wouldn't interfere with the dye (and then remove the string upon removal so it doesn't leave an indent on the softened tubing).

[Arthur]

Great thread, great job and great result. I liked 7 and 15 second ones alot.

Congrats. mate.

[Bad ConNecTioN]

Originally Posted by Vapor

EDIT: Concern three: it wouldn't be very easy to do a long length of tubing, would it? You might need to coil it tight enough so it can fit in the pot and contain it with string or something that wouldn't interfere with the dye (and then remove the string upon removal so it doesn't leave an indent on the softened tubing).

Just get a really big pot!!

[ell]

Cool, I love the 'smoked' looking one.

[gillbot]

Originally Posted by Vapor

Two concerns with using plugs (one with sand, one without).

Concern one, no sand, just air: The air would want to expand considerably if it heats up and would increase internal pressure and might pop off of a plug (and all the problems that would cause) or just burst through the weakened tubing (bigger problem, lol). Considering how poor of a thermal conductor tubing is and how brief the exposure to the boiling water is, that might not be an issue though.

Concern two, using sand to occupy the space: the weakened/softened tubing might take the form of sand (especially if the grains are large) and would create bumps on the interior walls--leading to significantly increased turbulence (and therefore a likely increase in restriction). Yeah, it would take tubing from "non-factor" to "minimal factor" in overall loop flowrates, but still

Filling the entire tube with water and sealing the ends might be the way to go Or use extremely fine grained sand

EDIT: Concern three: it wouldn't be very easy to do a long length of tubing, would it? You might need to coil it tight enough so it can fit in the pot and contain it with string or something that wouldn't interfere with the dye (and then remove the string upon removal so it doesn't leave an indent on the softened tubing).

I might try it. You could get nylon caps for the ends and just clamp them on with worm drive clamps so they wouldn't pop off. If you make your tubing length a couple inches longer than needed, you could cut off the clamped section, plus that would give you a good cross section look at the dye penetration. You could also squeeze the tubing SLIGHTLY before capping to make a negative pressure, that way it would be "normal" after the expansion from the air being heated. Might take some trial and error to get it right though.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

Good idea IKIKU as I have said before on these boards in regards to RIT dye, there is a lot of cool effects you can make with it - with specific respect to tubing I would think some kind of spiral patter using electrical tape and possibly a hot glue pattern would be very cool

[wondergod]

I actually refine my suggestion of plugging the ends. Get a good size loop of tubing like 10-15 feet and just leave the ends out of the water/dye.

[DeanB]

Very neat idea! I liked the smoke look alot.. I normally go for black tubing but I like the look of this alot.

If I can track down some tygon around here. I'll run a loop with this stuff.. I think the best way to fill the tube would be to preboil some hot water and salt (high salt concentration than the ink solution). that'll prevent air bubbles from forming when its in the pot.

[tiro_uspsss]

this is awesome thread

[faster3200]

I bought some blue Rit today and am going to try it out on some generic clear and Tygon silver tubing. Hopefully I can get some (crappy) pics by the end of this week.

This better be worth the effort. I had to go into a Walmart for the stuff .