Dyeing with fishing lure dye.

stubborn puppet

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Silver level trusted reviewer
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Sorry if this topic exists already, but I couldn't find it.

I was hitting a brick wall trying to get a nice, super visible (and easy to find) hot pink or neon pink dye for my discs. I'm not currently too interested in making them look cool, just don't want to have to spend an hour looking for discs every time I play the local courses.

The recent batches of RIT dye seem to be unable to dye plastic and the Fuchsia Rit was a complete failure. So, I had remembered reading that some people had used fishing lure dye to get good bright colors and I had to try it.

Bought some Hot Pink SpikeIt brand "Dip-N-Glo" fishing lure dye. It was just over $5 for a 2oz. bottle at the local Bass-Pro Shop. Now, you have to be careful when you get it, because the normal lure dye is garlic scented. You definitely will want the Unscented variety. Sure, that strong garlic smell will help to keep the vampires from stealing you discs that fly out of sight, but you don't want your disc bag to smell like a Turkish restaurant, do you?

I gave it my first go this afternoon on a clear plastic Champion Spider.

I had no experience with it, so I just took my best shot at how to apply it. I decided on using a fine bristled, small, flat paint brush to dip in the bottle and brush it on to the disc. I went top and bottom with it, brushing from the middle towards the edge and then cleaning up the rim by lightly circling the disc with the brush.

The SpikeIt must have had acetone in it, because it almost immediately began to disolve the Innova stamp on the disc and the dye seems to dry out after a few minutes on the disc.

I kept brushing until I thought it looked just about right and let it dry out. It dried looking very streaked (from the brush) and splotchy (anywhere that it had run or been touched by my rubber gloves) and I thought it was going to be a mess. I then stuck it under some warm running water (which didn't rinse it at all) and pulled out some dish soap and a little green scrubby pad and started scrubbing off all the thick, dried up pink residue off the surface of the disc. It eventually all came off and this is what I ended up with.

ChampionSpider_HotPinkSpikeIt.jpg


Damn! I played with it a few hours later. Nothing came off on my hands and it is very, very easy to see on the course. There are a few very light streaks from the brush still in there, but you have to look hard to see them. I think next time, I'm going to find a good plate to fill with the dye and then float the top of the disc on it, then fill the inside - instead of brushing.
 
That's pretty sweet! What other colors do they have? How much of the 2 oz bottle did you have left after you were done? Might be expensive, and reserved only for personal discs...otherwise I'd have to charge a premium for it, lol.
 
Here's a link to the colors: http://www.ispikeit.com/Store/p-150-dip-n-glo-lure-dye-unscented.aspx

I have 2/3rds of the bottle left at this point. It dries out once you spread it thin, so it's not nearly as economical as Rit.

I just realized that I did not yet test "SpikeIt's" claim that this dye is truly florescent... yup, it is!

This is under a black light:

ChampionSpider_HotPinkSpikeIt_BlackLight.jpg


Of course, you can't take a great photograph in a black light, but I think this speaks for itself. REALLY BRIGHT!
 
...there's white...and they claim its a dye...so....I'll take the bait (pun totally intended) and try it out, and let ya'll know what happens...
 
I gave it my first go this afternoon on a clear plastic Champion Spider.

I might have to hit Bass Pro next time I'm near one, I think there is one in Denver, might try to find it locally. Still seems pricey, but would definetely be cool for highlights where I wouldn't need to do the whole disc.. and the garlic would just be a bonus! :D
 
I agree with Fishy. A whole disc at that price per bottle seems a little much, but using it for highlights and such on other dyes sounds good.
If it does contain acetone already it should make highlights really easy. Just have to be careful getting it off.
I wonder if it can be mixed in with some Rit?
 
Check out this shop link for a list of colors, and only $4 a bottle.
watermelon sounds especially nice

I'd worry about mixing it with rit, but I wonder if you can effectively water it down at all, since it'd be great to reduce the evaporation rate. If it is just part acetone water should work fine, but I'd want to see the ingredients first.
 
There are NO ingredients given anywhere on the bottle or package.

The disc was originally clear.

I only used 1/3 of the bottle to paint the Spider.

I suppose you could find it at a regular bait and tackle store, I found several around my home town who carried it. They mostly were either only carrying one of the scented varieties or were out of Hot Pink at the time, but they might actually have it. You won't know until you call.

I tried it on the underneath of a Star Plastic disc that I have dyed Sunshine Orange with Rit. It took just fine, but it was really splotchy. It still glows under the black light on the star however.

I obviously need to improve the delivery method and the method for removing the dried excess when done.

Thanks for the nice comments.
 
Guess I ought to also mention that this stuff is really, really permanent and kinda messy.

Use rubber gloves ugly old clothes and a big drop cloth in an area where it's OK to have small drops of color on things. It seems to splatter at the slightest touch.

I make it sound bad, but it was actually not that big of a deal because I took precautions.
 
I'm gonna have to try this. I've even used the stuff before! You know they have crawfish scented colors too!
 

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