Dying flexi floss

[gazza1]

Hi all
can anyone do a SBS on how to dye flexi-floss,the process, chemicals and materials used and where to get them from

Cheers Gaz

[ROVER]

Not sure how youre going to dye elastic - or for that matter why you want to with all of the colour you can already get.

If you must, you can 'dye' it with an indelible ink pen like an edding, kurecolour ar the usual suspects.

Rover

[gazza1]

Hi Rover
Just fancy giving it a go, and maybe pruduce a shade or colour you cant buy.

Gaz

[stevekale]

Flexifloss is polyurethane, aka Lycra, aka Spandex, aka elastane. P. Burch is a bit of a guru re dyeing. See here:

FAQ: How can I dye spandex? How can I dye Lycra? How can I dye elastane?

It seems you will need to invest in some Lanaset dyes:

Lanaset Dyes: A Range of Reactive and Acid Dyes for Protein Fibers

Let me know how you get on.

[pete]

Originally Posted by gazza1

Hi all
can anyone do a SBS on how to dye flexi-floss,the process, chemicals and materials used and where to get them from

Cheers Gaz

Gaz have a word with Joe the next time your up. We were dying some on Sunday night after fishing. I'm sure he will take you through the process.

[Flyfishing-UK]

Flexi floss is pretty easy to dye, a lot of acid dyes will take to it fine but some won't. Just a case of playing around, apart from when you dye black you shouldn't need to turn the heat up so to speak. Its just plastic (lycra) and for most colours its as easy as dying gets.

[Chris Reeves]

I don't know about dying this stuff but I do know that once dyed the colour leaches out into everything if you're not careful especially the reds and oranges. I have some lovely two tone fluro green and red spanflex as well as some decidely pink, white spanflex.
The material in question was shop bought. If I dyed it myself would it be more stable?

Cheers

[stevekale]

I've had problems with stuff I've bought from "semi-professionals". By that I mean people selling fly tying products that have dyed it themselves rather than larger outfits sourcing professionally dyed material. I attribute this to use of dyes ill-suited for the purpose. According to the link above, the Lanaset dyes are very wash fast.

[gazza1]

Originally Posted by pete

Gaz have a word with Joe the next time your up. We were dying some on Sunday night after fishing. I'm sure he will take you through the process.

cheers Pete, sent Joe a PM see if I can pop up sometime.

Gaz

[Flyfishing-UK]

Hi there regarding the flexi colour leaching out, yes I have noticed this a bit with some flexi on the market. All you can do is wash out the dyed article thoroughly in a big bucket of cold soapy water this is all I do and I haven't had any problems with colours leaching yet and there is no "bleeding" when I varnish the flexi on buzzer bodies etc.

It is possiblt to get colour leaching out of the flexi regardless though if it gets wet or just slightly damp, just keep all the hanks of different flexi colours in separate bags to avoid the risk of the colours leaching on to one another. Most importantly keep the white well away from the other dyed colours, especially PINK.

The flexi I dye in hanks of maybe 300g or more per colour and after I have washed them out and cleaned, allowed them to dry (naturally) I just store them all in a bin bag together and there is no colours washing out/leaching whatsoever so my opinion is if the flexi is leaching out the colours/washing out then the dyer perhaps hasn't washed away the surplus dye from the article or maybe not cleaned it thoroughly. This is just my opinion from my experience though.

I might do a step by step before Christmas if I get chance.

Sam