Doesn't wash or rub off. I don't know how deeply it penetrates but if you cut or scuff it hard, you can reveal the white nylon underneath.

The takeaway, use polyester dye. I forget the brand but JoAnn's and other craft stores sell it.

I just started using this but my settings are obviously way off. I need to dry it first I think as its popping like mad which makes a rough print. I'm getting lots of micro stringy artifacts on the first few layers that seem to go away after that.  I'm using an Airwolf 3D2S with abs on head one and bridge on head 2.  I made a simple phone cover for my galaxy s4 but it took a lot of dremel to clean it up. I found a couple sites with recommended settings for temp/speed/retraction.  I'll have to experiment I guess. Any recommendations?

Not sure what sites you are using but my recommendation is to use the manufacturer's site only.  They know their filament best.  A toaster over works well for drying.  150F for 3- 5 hours should do, but you might have to unwind the filament and bundle it loosely to dry the inner layers of the spool.  Make damn sure none of it touches the heating elements of the toaster oven.

Thanks.  It shouldn't be too hard to rig something like that to work with all the empty octave spools I've got around here.

I don't know how many people are still reading this thread.  I've got several good bridge prints that I can add pictures of.  I will probably just go ahead and try a whole spool of bridge dyed black.  Heck, I've got plenty of money thrown in at modding my printer already.  What's another $30 at this point, right?  Worst case, I get some unevenly colored parts.  Unfortunately, I probably won't know how well it worked until I get to the end of the spool.

I am still reading this thread and would be happy to see pictures of your prints!

Thanks.  It shouldn't be too hard to rig something like that to work with all the empty octave spools I've got around here.

I posted the Thingiverse link I made the winder from. Unfortunately, I am 90% sure it would not work for Octave spools unless you really torqued it down. I've been meaning to work off that design for spools like Octave.

You are correct that it should be too hard to rig

I don't know how many people are still reading this thread.  I've got several good bridge prints that I can add pictures of.  I will probably just go ahead and try a whole spool of bridge dyed black.  Heck, I've got plenty of money thrown in at modding my printer already.  What's another $30 at this point, right?  Worst case, I get some unevenly colored parts.  Unfortunately, I probably won't know how well it worked until I get to the end of the spool.

At least that would be one problem off your list

First attempt with dye was green dye, 2 cups room temp water mixed with the dye in a glass jar and soaked for a couple hours.  Then I took it out, rinsed, and wiped off remaining water and let it sit overnight.  The dye only took moderately well in this configuration, it was slightly splotchy in some areas.  I figured this was a good time to attempt a no drying print just as a bench mark to see how bad it really needs it.  Results speak for themselves in the pictures below.  The white is showing thru the green dye in many areas and it surface is horribly pitted from moisture, as expected.  It let out a nearly constant hiss and puffs of steam while printing.  The quality is clearly unacceptable.  However, the part is still very strong.

Next attempt with dye was blue dye, 1 cup boiling water with 1 cup room temp vinegar in a glass jar, soaked for a couple hours.  It was immediately obvious that the dye had taken much better in this configuration, but I can't say whether it was due to the use of hot water or vinegar.  I then dried it in my toaster over at 170 degrees F (77 C) for 2 hours and attempted the same print above.  The improvement was immediately obvious, as there was no hissing or steaming.  The print came out with nice smooth walls.

Next up I tried some gray dye.  I had a feeling that the hot water was a good idea, so I decided to boil the dye mix.  This turned out to be a disaster.  Pro tip: be sure to leave enough space in the top of your container that the boiling water does not overflow the container or you will get a huge mess of dye water all over your work area!!!  I was doing this on top of my washing machine in the garage (with a single burner I got to do ABS smoothing) and it got all over my washing machine.  Thankfully it all wiped off with no permanent damage and the rest just got on my concrete floor.  So don't do that unless you want your wife to get mad at you.  She wasn't really a fan of baking plastic in her toaster oven either, but it didn't seem to leave a smell or anything so I'm gonna keep doing it.

It also turned the gray dye into nearly black but I think I had it not diluted enough to begin with.  The dye took very quickly in the boiling water.

So I will continue to experiment but it looks like the best way to dye bridge nylon is some combination of hot water and vinegar in a glass jar for a couple hours, then dried in an oven for at least 2 hours at 170 F or maybe a little hotter.  You may also heat the dye mix but there is probably no reason to boil it.  I will try some two color dyes tonight.

Thanks for the reviews and updates! Ill get mine in as soon as my printer is running right.

POPOTROPOPIC3 wrote:

Nice to see some success. What print speed's are you folks using and what Multiplier. I'm having a heck of a time getting this to feed properly through an entire print...

thanks in advance

About 10-15% of your usual speeds used with ABS so very slow.  That is unless it's a small print then about 50% but then you run the risk of it stripping the filament before it finishes.

Maybe I just got lucky but I have not reduced my speeds from ABS, but I was running pretty much the stock speeds (about 30 mm/s perimeters).  I always run my small perimeters at 10 mm/s and external perimeters at 70%.  30% first layer speed.  Infill at 60 does not seem to give me problems.  I haven't done a print with large supports yet, but when I do I will consider turning that down from 60 to 45. 

Later today I will try to get my retraction a little better since I've heard people generally increase that distance.  Again, I only have about 8 hours of print time on Taulman Bridge but I have not seen a need to reduce me speeds so far.  I'm getting very nice, smooth finishes on the top and sides. 

Also, some more info on dying bridge:  Use a glass jar and entirely submerge the filament, the ziploc baggie full of dye does not seem to allow it to make enough contact.  I tried one with hot water mixed in the dye and one with 50% vinegar and 50% hot water.  The vinegar mix seemed to make it take the color faster but I got good results with both.  When I get home from work today I will dry it in the oven and try a print.  I might run by the thrift store and pick up some old pots that I can sacrifice and try boiling the dye mix.  Gotta try this one the separate burner that I set up in the garage for ABS smoothing so my wife doesn't come home to a big dye mess in the kitchen and kill me.

Pictures:

1) Vase

2) Single wall calibration cube

Wow, those came in really big.  Does anyone know how I can reduce the size that it shows up at?  Is there a way to do this in the forum or do I have to go into my image and resize and reupload?

Anyway, I should clarify on my speeds statement.  While I have not reduced my main speeds from ABS, I do run my ABS cooling thresholds differently than stock.  I set it to slow down print speed if layer time is less than 30 seconds and a minimum speed of 5 mm/s.  So the cube above did print pretty slow.

Also note that the slight peeling is not actually the bottom layer peeling up, but the perimeter separating from the bottom layer, which is stuck very firmly.  I haven't had this issue when using more than 1 perimeter.