Painting PVC and prepping metal pipes

This was a big group activity.  Scouts sanded down all the black writing on all the pipes, then wiped them with wet rags and dried them to get ready for the dye.  











Other scouts drilled holed in both ends of the metal pipes, then filed down all the sharp ends of the pipes.  









Mostly adults dyed the PVC pipes since we were working with the highly caustic MEK solution.

Some notes on dying PVC pipe.  PVC pipe does not paint well.  It quickly peels and pulls off leaving a big mess.  You can purchase industrial grade dye on ebay (Rekhaoil dye comes in 1/4 ounce bottles, plenty for 1 pipe) and mix with with MEK.  Once applied to the pipe, it is permanent and needs a LOT of sanding to remove.   The MEK eats in to the pipe an leaves a permanent tattoo of color. 


 The result is amazing.  However, MEK is caustic and eats through any plastic gloves, container or tarp.  We had lots of breaking gloves, so it was important to double-glove and change gloves often.  Buy a couple boxes of gloves.  We also did this outside with a fan and SHOULD have worn masks over nose and mouth. 

I used about 3 ml of dye per 1 mostly-full quart canning bottle of MEK.  I used a large-bore needle and syringe to pull up the dye.  Mix well. Use lots of ground cover, gloves, and old clothes - this stuff stains and quickly can create a huge mess. 

 Dying the pipes was tricky, because any streaks are permanent and the stuff runs like crazy.  I found using rags of old sheets worked well, soaked in dye but NOT TOO MUCH or the dye would run all over the place.  I kind of massaged it into the pipe.  You have to go over and over the same areas to get a nice pretty, deep color.  The u-bend didn't take the dye quite as well and could be tricky.  Remember to dye the PVC fittings at the same time.

Two of the pipes (the C pipes) should be the same color.  We used kind of a rainbow, with Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, and Red.  I wanted lighter blue/green instead of pink, but that wasn't available.  I suppose you could make your own!  The pink was REALLY hard to work with and needed multiple layers and time.

The dye sets up almost instantly, and just needs a few minutes to dry.



For the metal pipes, painting doesn't work well either.  Remember, kids will be hitting these pipes over and over and the paint will flake off and create a mess.  We finally decided to use a band of adhesive vinyl.  We picked a very durable brand that would last in the outdoors - Oracal 751 or 951 seemed like the best options.  The diameter of the pipe was 7 inches, so we created a 1 inch overlap and cut out the note letter with a Silhouette.  Total size of the "sticker" was 4.5 inches tall and 8 inches wide.  It was tricky to apply and there were several "bubbles" which we popped with a needle so they would lay flat.  We went through several rejects on some pipes before they looked good enough.