The clone have tougher material and bounce higher. I think it has something to do with the durometer as well. But anyway 4 - 5mm give you full solid color if the dye manage to penetrate well. Nevertheless it’s really good enough for urethane as they wont wear out almost ever (unless you slide alot).
2 Likes
they look great. I think you’ll be pretty happy with them. no clone wheels ever measure up to genuine wheels. now you have the color you want on some great wheels. I will upload my fly wheels in a little bit.
2 Likes
Below are the beat up Fly Wheels i Dyed. I also dyed a bunch of bushings which turned out great. I only heated the water once in the beginning using powder RIT dye and just soaked them for like 12 hours or so. I’m sure they would look a lot nicer if they were new Fly Wheels but it was basically a proof of concept for me. Also i can probably get the center ring darker if i soaked longer i suppose but I’m probably going to use the liquid dye next time with heat and salt (thanks for the info).
2 Likes
although they are beat up, the colour looks great. I think the best method is heat bursts and salt. I am going to try different methods on my other wheels and then make a post/tutorial on how to dye them
yea, I’m also going to experiment using food buffet trays and heaters in my garage or backyard so i don’t have to use my stove and don’t have to worry about dye splashing around so much. Also mostly to please my wife and stay out of her kitchen. Below is what i am talking about, this can give us the option to use heat perpetually or take it away when we want while not having to worry about messing up our kitchens. I basically dumped almost boiling water into these type of trays (6 for $ 3 at the dollar store) for my fly wheels and let them soak. Next time I’m going to use the heating element as well to give myself heating options as well. Cleanup will be a lot easier too. By the way what did you use @Raf ?
3 Likes
thats a great idea. i just used a pan on a stove. i made a hook out of a hanger so the wheel could float in the pot. this allowed me to keep on the heat without worrying about the wheel being in direct contact with it.
2 Likes
nice. I’ll have to work on some kind of rigging as well for the wheels. It’s great that your stove is black. Mine is white.
yeah, although i did spill a bit, but if you keep a wet cloth around, wiping it up quickly should clean it. If there is still a stain then some chlorine bleach should get rid of it
I used bleach which ate the dye up in seconds.
Do you know if it’s possible to dye black wheels orange? 
I know, that orange is a lighter color, but could it penetrate the black urethane?
I don’t think you can go lighter with dyes, only darker. Maybe with hydrogen peroxide? Ok, that’s probably a bad idea.
@themegak @Raf I think using a sous vide immersion circulator (anova is the best band imo) would be ideal for the long cook times and temperature control needed. Put the wheels & dye in a ziploc bag inside a pot and set the sous vide to maintain a consistent temp near boiling for as long as you want. I’ve used my sous vide to cook over days at a time. mmm, 72 hour short ribs…
2 Likes
I hope this does not weaken the Lamination to the Core ???
2 Likes
Thanks for the reply
this thread is so bad ass. I have our old stove in my garage now because i’m planning on eventually using the oven to heat up plastic for vac forming boxes but i can totally use it for dying wheels as well. Red kegals and black kegals… mmm mmm mmm.
2 Likes
I’ve been riding on my black dyed 97mm flywheels for a while now and haven’t had any issues. Not sure about Kegels but i assume it isn’t issue with those wheels either.
That might be the best heating element for this purpose but unfortunately i can’t justify the cost. i could buy a nice carbon hi5ber deck for that cost. You know my wife may already own one of those, i should ask her but i highly doubt she would let me use it for the cause. Thanks for the info though I will keep a look out for one on the cheap on ebay.
Do you have any photos where you can see the logo directly? Kind of want to see what it looks like against the black.
Thanks!
Why would you dye your bushings? How are you ever going to tell what durometer they are?
i would totally dye bushings because i don’t believe aesthetics should have to suffer over specs like durometer. If somebody wants an all black board with 92a bushings i shouldn’t only have the option of some bright primary color determined completely by the brand producing them.
1 Like
Oh, that sous vide pays for itself since you can make amazing meals out of cheaper cuts off meat like pork shoulder, turkey and chuck roast that you’d normally have to cook all day in the oven.
But yeah, not worth it just for skateboard wheels.
1 Like