Dyeing Shapeways Puzzle Pieces

George Bell ; June 10th, 2011 ; gibell@comcast.net http://home.comcast.net/~gibell/

Colors (L to R): Lemon Yellow, Fuchsia, Tangerine, Scarlet, Purple, Kelly Green, Royal Blue. This document refers to dyeing puzzle pieces made from the Shapeways material known as White, Strong and Flexible (WSF) or PA 2200, produced by the SLS (selective laser sintering) method. Other Shapeways materials can also be dyed, but not all can tolerate boiling water. I use RIT brand fabric dye, but other fabric dyes are probably similar. RIT dye comes in both powder and liquid forms. In my experience, there is no difference between the same color in powder or liquid. However, the liquid form is a bit easier to work with. If you spill a single grain of the powder, it can lurk undetected in your kitchen until it gets wet. Most likely it will be your wife who discovers this and then you will have to look for another place to dye puzzle pieces. You have been warned!

Step 1: Wash the puzzle pieces. This removes surface powder and hand oils which
may have been absorbed into the pieces (if you have been playing with them). I use dish soap and warm water, scrubbing each piece vigorously with a toothbrush. Rinse the pieces and keep them soaking in a bowl of water. The WSF material is relatively porous and readily absorbs water. If you dye dry puzzle pieces the color may be uneven. I have had much better luck soaking the pieces in water for 10 minutes before dyeing. Since it takes almost 10 minutes to heat the water for dyeing, I let the pieces soak during this time.

Step 2: Heat up the dye bath. I use an old camping pot on the kitchen stove. I use 3
to 4 tsp (15 to 20 ml) of liquid dye to 1 liter or quart of water. For the powder dye, use this amount by volume. It does not seem to matter if you add the dye when the water is cold or hot. If using powder, be sure to stir thoroughly to dissolve, and do not spill any. When the dye bath starts to simmer, turn the heat off. You do not want to boil the

puzzle pieces (although I have done so with no ill effects). I live at 1650m where the boiling temperature is 94C. Shapeways suggests a dye bath at a constant 90C.

Step 3: Take the puzzle pieces from the water and put them in the dye bath. They will
probably float, so keep stirring and dunking them down to ensure a uniform color. The amount of dyeing time varies quite a bit depending on the color. Royal Blue is one of the easiest colors to work with, and the pieces should be a nice light blue after only 30 seconds, and will be quite dark blue in 3 to 5 minutes. Lemon Yellow is the slowest. I use double the amount of dye, and soak them for 15 to 30 minutes.

Step 4: When you like the shade of color, remove the pieces from the dye bath and
rinse them in warm water. I let them soak in a pot for 3-5 minutes, refreshing the water every minute or so. Dump the dye water down the sink.

Step 5: Toss the puzzle pieces back in the soapy water. I have a second toothbrush
and I give the pieces another scrub. The purpose of this step is so that your guests do not have dye coming off in their hands when they are handling your puzzle.

Step 6: Rinse thoroughly and let the pieces soak again for a few minutes. If you see
any dye coming off them (primarily for hollow pieces), keep them soaking. Set on paper towels to dry. You are done! Hollow pieces may take over 24 hours to dry, you can speed this up by using a hair dryer.

Colors: The recipe here results in

vibrant and well saturated colors. All colors seem to come out much darker than indicated on the package. If you want lighter colors use less dye or work at a lower temperature (Shapeways uses a 90C dye bath for at least 20 minutes). Some colors are also easier to work with than others. The easiest color to work with is black, which always comes out perfectly. Green and yellow are tricky, taking longer and/or hard to keep from becoming too dark. I still have not found a satisfactory green. Easy RIT colors: Black, Royal Blue, Royal Blue, Kelly Green, Scarlet, Lemon Yellow, Tan(!), Purple

Scarlet, Fuchsia, Tangerine, Purple. Hard RIT colors: Kelly Green, Lemon Yellow, Pearl Grey, Tan (last two can easily become too dark). Not recommended RIT colors: Teal, Wine, Dark Green, Navy Blue, Denim Blue (these come out too dark).

Note: Dyeing a six piece puzzle in 6

different colors is a time-consuming process. This can easily take three Peanut puzzle pieces dyed at a lower hours! I usually dye several puzzles in parallel. temperature by Ginda Fischer

Note: The WSF material starts out as a fine nylon powder which is fused by a laser,
layer by layer. Since Shapeways charges by volume of the fused material, one can save money by making pieces hollow. One can add holes to let the interior powder escape, OR add very tiny holes which will fuse over, trapping the powder. If the puzzle pieces appear solid, they may contain trapped powder. These pieces can be more difficult to dye, and Shapeways refuses to do it. What can happen is that the dye soaks into the pieces and then into the powder unevenly, producing a mottled appearance (yellow in particular seems prone to this problem). If this should happen to you, dont panic. I have found that once the inside powder dries up, the mottling goes away. The problem is that this drying out may take many weeks or months. I live in a very dry place, and it took over a month for the mottling to go away.

Reference: Shapeways describes their dyeing process at

http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/dyeing_sls