Dyeing a backpack

[Eugene Smith]

I'm quite jealous of this upcoming Yosemite trip Mr. Tang and Mr. Graf are taking soon… baby blue Jam2 and all. Can we expect a trip report?

[Jeff Antig]

Where do you buy rit dye?

[Eugene Smith]

@ Jeffrey,

Go to your local fabric store for the largest variety of dye. I found and purchased my RIT brand dye at Joann Fabrics. Most Walmarts have a fabric and sewing section, you can find RIT dye there as well. It's readily available. I dyed a hydration pack with the powder to see how it performed in comparison to the liquid dye and I greatly preferred the results with the Liquid RIT dye. Just my experience though.

[EndoftheTrail]

Ummm… what I meant up above is that if I had a baby blue color pack, then yes, I would definitely dye it something else!!

[Jeff Antig]

Thanks Eugene. It seems like it's hard to mess up using black. I'll deviate and try brown though.

[Turley]

Jeffrey,

I dyed my GG Gorilla Brown and am happy with it….I used the liquid RIT (purchased at Wal-Mart) and had very good results (no missed spots – very uniform color)

[David Lutz]

Well, maybe now I'll leave the pack baby blue…….too much conformity around here! ; )

[EndoftheTrail]

"Well, maybe now I'll leave the pack baby blue…….too much conformity around here!"

Yup. How about a matching pair of Crocs?

[Ken Thompson]

David. Think tie dye!

[David Lutz]

Watch out Ken…….or you'll get a package on your door step with a note requesting a complimentary backpack dye job!

[Ken Thompson]

I'll do it if you want. My choice of color!? I'm thinking pink!

[David Lutz]

That will go great with my crocs!

[Frank Steele]

Bender,

I know what you mean about a company with the word lite in their name. I recently bought the newest Jam, and it was the heaviest yet at 31 oz! My Osprey Exos is only 3 oz heavier (after mods) and Waaaaaaaaay more comfortable. What is GoLite thinking? The original Jam was only something like 20 oz and has steadily gotten heavier. Of course it doesn't help that the naming went Jam, Jam2 then Jam again, what happended to Jam3 or jam cubed or something.

[Konrad .]

Hey Guys, excellent job on the packs!! I was going to dye a pack a while back and did some research online. Apparently a woman did a lot of experiments with rit dye, combining them to formulate new shades. I figured this would be helpful to someone, so heres a link to her blog and her dye recipes

http://paintedthreadsprojects.blogspot.com/2008/12/mixing-rit-dye.html

[Ben Egan]

Tie dye would be soooo coooooolll!

Any ideas?

[Jeff Antig]

Are you guys using the Rit Color Remover before you dye ?

[Ken Thompson]

No on using the remover. Would use it if I got something dyed by mistake,sock or something else missed in the washer.

[Frank Steele]

Konrad, Thanks

That link on making your own colors is awesome!

[Konrad .]

Cool! no problem, I'm glad I could help. Now the more important question…what color will you dye your next pack? Will it be Olive Drab….or perhaps Eggplant :D

[Frank Steele]

I will be dying some MH Mesa Convertible pants "green" so I an wear them as Scout Pants, Much nicer than what the BSA offers.

[D S]

Can you dye cuben? Will the fibers accept the RIT?

couch

any examples out there….these seemed to be exclusively dyneema blends.

[Terry Trimble]

We use to dye white delrin parts with a combination of boiling water and finger nail polish remover and RIT dye.The results would be a subdued color only on the surface.

Delrin is not suppose to take to dyeing like dyneema grid in less the colors is mixed in when moulding.

The finger nail polish would soften surface of the delrin and would allow the polymer to take the dye but when dropped or it hit the ground it could scrape off the color and you would see white delrin .

I would only try this on a scrap of dyneema grid fabric to see how it works in to see what the side effects from the finger nail polish
remover are to the nylon and urethane coating. Then when it drys see if it scrape off or did it dye the full penetrate dyneema fiber .

[Javan Dempsey]

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=37448

I covered the woven/dyneema spectra in detail here., although Dan McHale commented on another thread to indicate that "dying was a loose term" and implied that it was actually a paint or coating.

Only two methods I'm aware of are some type of polymerization for the 100% woven dyneema/spectra, or acid etched/treated solid UHMWPE.

Cuben you'd be attempting to pigmenting the Mylar laminate on the outside of the spectra. Spray paint might work ;P

[Konrad .]

As a weekend project I decided to dye my granite gear vapor Ki.

Here is a stock image of the pack as delivered to me:

Because the purple color was wayyy too masculine for me, I decided to tone it down some with 3 bottles of Rit Dye.
Using the same method as described in this thread, I was able to achieve the following result after 2 hours of toiling over a hot black water filled caldron:

Why the Vapor Ki women's version you ask? Because the one thing I never liked about the Men's VT was the non-existence of any storage pockets. The Vapor Ki solves this by adding 2 zip pockets on both sides, above the side stretch pockets. I was able to confirm with GrG that their harness and back lengths are the same for both female and male packs; so once I get a male hipbelt on this pack, the pack will be strong enough for a man, but made for a …man?

After reading about Tom's mishap with his VT leaking dye from the soft cushion padding, I made it a point to make sure all the loose dye was out of my pack. That equated to me using 9 bathtubs full of water (a couple of those had laundry detergent in them too), and the repeated stomping of the harness and backpanel as if I were opening up my own winery in my bathroom. Crossing my fingers!

[todd]

Don't you mean VADER Ki? :)

The blackout treatment looks great Konrad!

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