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

That will go great with my crocs!

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.

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

Tie dye would be soooo coooooolll!

Any ideas?

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

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

Konrad, Thanks

That link on making your own colors is awesome!

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

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.

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

couch

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

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 .

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

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!

Edited by Konrad1013 on 11/20/2010 14:36:43 MST.

Don't you mean VADER Ki? :)

The blackout treatment looks great Konrad!

Major improvement Konrad!

Ready for the stealth recon mission. Sneaking up on Moose.

Vader Ki...i like that--almost as much as I enjoy moose tipping in the winter. This combined with my RealTree Camo should make for a successful season.

I picked up a a older light blue Golite Pinnacle from Nomad Ventures pretty cheap on clearance.
I have a few questions for the you that dyed your pack it been trough a Fall and part of winter how's the dye job holding up? Did it effect the DWR finish? did it bleed trough in the rain or snow?

I want to dye mine coyote brown I noticed most of you have dyed yours black. Did any of you dye your packs lighter colors and have the color of the light blue pack cloth effect the color of the dye job and come out in a unexpected color? TIA for answering the questions.
Terry

Terry,

Nylon dyes very easily, so dyeing your light blue to a dark brown should be easy. I think your results will be positive... not a vomitous bile color when done :). My ULA Ohm was a 'lightish' green, which was then dyed black, it hasn't bled through onto any clothing from rain or sweat as far as I can tell. My MLD Burn pack which was originally a gray dyneema color is now a deep navy blue, haven't used this pack since summer before it was dyed so I cannot tell how the color will hold up but I'm not worried. I didn't notice any difference to the DWR properties or hand of the fabric after dyeing both packs. The biggest thing you have to do is rinse until your sick of rinsing, after 30 minutes of rinsing you'll think you removed all spent dye from the pack... only to then rinse again and find the water tinted. I added a mild detergent to my rinse water which seemed to help remove more spent dye than water alone, also helped reveal how much unused dye was floating around in the pack materials, particularly the shoulder straps and hipbelt. As far as knowing how two different colors will look when combined, I'd recommend finding a swatch of dyneema and testing it out first before dyeing your Pinnacle, or you can do what I did and just hope for the best. Worst case scenario you just dye it a darker color if you don't like it.

Tips:

- Use the liquid RIT in a bottle (easy and good results)

- Presoak your pack in hot water so it's saturated from the start and takes the dye evenly once you place it in the dye.

- Hotter the dye water the deeper the color results. (medium heat stirring constantly, don't boil it or go above 180F as it might do some funky stuff to the materials)

- Longer immersion times result in deeper/darker colors. (45min- 1hr.)