Cable Dyeing

By Sean Michael Ragan
Category: Art & Design
Time Required: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy

If you want an extension cord, power cord, or other plastic-insulated cable in an unusual color, and you can find one in white, there’s a good chance you can dye it to suit your preference using this technique.

Turns out many cables are sheathed with PVC, and will take the same oil-based stains as PVC pipe. If you want a purple cord, for instance, you can just treat a white PVC cord with purple primer. If you want some other color, it is easy to prepare your own custom stains from clear PVC cleaner and concentrated solvent dyes.

Steps

Step #1: Test the material

Not all plastic insulation will take this dye. Test a small piece of the insulation you want to stain before trying to do a whole cable.
You can perform this test using hardware-store purple primer. If the material will take a purple primer stain, this technique will work.

Conclusion

When the stain is dry, it is quite clean. PVC stained using this technique will pass a "white glove test" and will not transfer color, under normal conditions, to materials that come in contact with it.

If you're feeling really adventurous, you might also try setting a coil in the cable before staining it.

At some point I hope to experiment with spray application of these stains.

4 Responses to Cable Dyeing

Sean Michael Ragan on July 5th, 2011 at 2:29 am said:

Elizabeth, thanks for sharing this information. Are there pictures of your cord online someplace? I would love to see how it came out. Cheers – SMR

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Elizabeth on July 5th, 2011 at 7:31 am said:

I posted pictures on my blog here: http://froggetscrafts.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/tie-dyeing-a-power-cord/
Enjoy!
Elizabeth

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Sean Michael Ragan on November 7th, 2011 at 2:28 am said:

Thanks, Elizabeth! I’ve observed some fading, too, on the red cord, but not as severe as you describe. In the case of PVC pipe, my experience is that the fading is caused by exposure to sunlight or other UV light, and that some colors fade more than others. Light-fastness should vary with the particular dye molecules used to achieve a particular color. I have not observed fading from commercial “Purple Primer,” which I’m sure has been formulated using dye molecules that are more light-fast. The dyes that I used here are intended for colorizing organic solvents (e.g. diesel fuel or denatured alcohol) and thus are not intended to hold up to prolonged UV exposure. I’m sure light-fast versions of all these colors could be prepared if a person could get his or her hands on the right bulk dye molecules, but sourcing them in small quantities may be a bit of a challenge.

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Sean Michael Ragan on April 25th, 2012 at 1:31 pm said:

I dunno, but let’s see if we can figure it out. I guess you followed the instructions either here or in the magazine pretty closely. Did your dyes come from Narad marketing and/or are they called “Rekhaoil?” And is the substrate a piece of PVC pipe? Or is it a cord? Any info you can provide will be helpful. And if you have pictures, please feel free to send them to me directly at sean@makezine.com.

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