Polycarbonate Dyeing

Learning and discussion Custom keyboards
1

I have a few Polycarbonate boards and after loving the coloring offered in the Yeti GB that just ended recently I am looking into possible methods to custom dye/tint one of my boards.

I wanted to reach out to the members of the community to see if

  1. Someone has experience dying Polycarbonate or similar plastics
    and
  2. I could find some insight on the processes to dye PC

Hopefully, if any information comes up, it will benefit both future dye-ers(?) and myself!

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2

I don’t know how relevant polycarbonate Yo-yos are to keyboards, but I found a guide for dyping polycarbonate yo-yo- which might be similar to keyboards here:

http://www.yoyonation.net/index.php?topic=76643.0

Instructions:

Dyeing Polycarbonate Plastic-

Ingredients:
-A glass cup or mason jar
-100% Pure Acetone
-RIT Dye
-A Fork

  1. Remove all parts from the yoyo, if you can remove the axle, then please remove it. It will only get in the way.
  2. Fill the bottom of your container with a mixture of warm water and RIT Dye; only enough to cover the yoyo, the warm water is to dissolve the dye completely before adding acetone. Stir the mixture until completely dissolved.
  3. Insert your yoyo into the bottom of the glass half by half, take the fork and move them around to make sure they get covered 100% with no air bubbles.
  4. Add acetone and begin dyeing. There is no concrete setting for how much acetone it takes to dye any polycarbonate yoyo, it’s trial and error. Add until it takes the dye.

Troubleshooting:
-The yoyo isn’t taking the dye
add more acetone
-The yoyo isn’t getting any darker
add more dye

Acetone allows the dye to seep in. If the yoyo refuses to get darker, the yoyo is already accepting the acetone therefore you must add more dye. If the yoyo isn’t taking the dye at all then more acetone must be used.

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3

I’ve seen a few tutorials similar to the one you posted. I may to get some common PC components to test and see how it goes.

I’ve tried looking for local shops that can do the process as well, but most of them are plastics manufacturers rather than ones that would dye it :cold_sweat:

4

lol. i was really confused b/c i thought your polycarbonate board was “dying”

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5

Gotta love the English language.

6

Yeah I was thrown off until I read it. I had to double check myself

image

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7

RIP Me.

1 Like
8

no, RIP the polycarbonate board :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Tokyokeyboard.com has some shots of their dyed keyboard. I just can’t imagine working with that much acetone though. You can see in the picture of the dude doing the dipping, there’s a big ventilation setup above it.

image
image1129×1141 114 KB

I swear I’ve posted this before for some reason. My brain is a cluttered mess though.

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