I will be explaining and going over how I went about making my PvC red. If I had easy access to reasonably priced standard red furniture or regular red PvC I wouldn't have done this....
Here goes.
Purchased Solvent Red 164 fuel dye, PvC Cement and CLEAR PvC Primer/Cleaner.
Now typically, when one primes PvC the usual stuff that is available is either clear or purple primer.
I read somewhere that its just clear primer/cleaner with purple dye so that when inspectors check up on plumbing work they can see that the PvC pipes were primed and thus have a better bond than not primed.
Ok, so this red fuel dye is mixed with the cleaner. The cleaner contains MEK. MEK is a strong solvent and degreaser. It basically stripes away a thin layer of the PVC and lessens the bond so that when you apply the cement it sticks and molds/becomes one piece easier.
Now with the MEK stripping the clear coat on the PVC and also dissolving it a bit so that the dye can sink in.
For every 118ml (4oz) of cleaner you put 1ml (0.034oz) of the dye.
Shake the clear cleaner for about 1 min and then apply it to the PVC. This stuff smells really bad. I recommend using a NIOSH approved mask as the regular N95s are mainly for particulates and note vapor/fumes. This stuff will knock you out if you are not using it in a well ventilated place.
Now the clear cleaner has a very low viscosity and it also evaporates very fast. The regular applicator that comes with the clear cleaner may be tricky to apply, also leaves streaks and so I created this coat hanger wrapper and took some of my daughters pipe cleaners to apply the dye.
Worked out pretty well and evenly dyed the pipe.
