Inside Out Dye: #TheGopherProject

For this week’s edition of #TheGopherProject, we are about to tackle one of the trickier dyes out there.  That’s right, it’s the Inside-Out Dye. These dyes are challenging in that you don’t see how well it turned out until you peel off all the vinyl and glue.  One tiny seam can ruin the entire dye, so patience and attention to detail are critical. I’d say my success rate is around 75% on these….let’s see how this one turns out.  Now this method is an overkill way of doing an inside out dye but it’ll typically turn out better.

Here is what you are going to need for the inside out dye job:

1. 1. Parents’ permission….
   2. A large pot and lid that you can fully submerge a head in. Note, this needs to be dedicated to dyes moving forward, you don’t want to cook in this after.
   3. A white lacrosse head.  This week I’m using the Warrior Burn FO
   4. Dye. This week I’m using turquoise Laxdip  
   5. Citric Acid (needed for Laxdip)
   6. Vinyl (I use Oracle 651)
   7. Glue gun.  
   8. A heat gun (or hair dryer will work)
   9. An x-acto knife (and extra blades)
   10. Stainless steel sink (to pour out the dye).  
   11. Proper ventilation (either an exhaust hood fan or do it outside)
   12. An old sponge or one you will only use for dyeing moving forward
   13. Cleaning supplies  
   14. Rubbing alcohol

Step 1:

Clean the head…..Just like last time…. You don’t want a stupid price tag sticker ruining your dye.  

Step 2:  

Lay the vinyl. For this tutorial, you’ll see I’ve got several colors of vinyl. This will hopefully demonstrate. For this head, we are going to use four sections of vinyl. We will start with the first section (the lower-third of the head) and use the red vinyl.

It’s important to make sure you lay this vinyl flat without any seems or bubbles.  If you see these, slowly lift the vinyl back up and reapply. After you have the section applied, blast it with the heat gun (or hairdryer) to adhere.  Next take an x-acto knife (new blade) and trim the excess off.

Step 3: Now we’ll do the top left section (this time with blue vinyl).  Same process as before, just make sure you evenly apply the vinyl from sidewall to scoop.  

Step 4:

Same as Step 3 but to the right side.

Step 5:

Carefully trim the final piece to fit the open section (leaving a slight seam so there is no overlap).  For this section, I left the seam larger than normal to demonstrate. Ideally, you want a small seam that will easily be covered by a glue line.  In this final section, I used green vinyl.

Step 6:

Go back through the entire head and heat and press all vinyl.  Trim any excess. Once you are comfortable with how everything is, it’s glue time.  

Note: Normally, I’d simply glue the seams and anywhere I do not think the vinyl needs to be supported.  Here, we’re going to glue everything! Run the glue evenly along all sections of the vinyl. Once it’s done, gently heat the glue with the heat gun.  It’ll go from glue lines to one big section of glue.

Here I brought in Dan Tisinger aka @Darkstarlax to give some pointers.  

Step 7:

Trim the glue lines and clean up all excess.  Dan’s great at this, taking another clean x-acto blade, trim all the excess. You can use the angles of the sidewall and top of the head as guidelines to run the blade across. Next, fire up the glue gun (without any glue) and use the nozzle to melt the excess glue from the edges. After a couple of passes, you can rub the excess glue off the lines. The glue gun doesn’t get hot enough for you to have to worry about burning/melting the head.  

Step 8:

Start water and turn exhaust fan on.  As the water is boiling take time to set up the rags.  Keep a couple handy to hold the head and cover it as you remove it from the dye.  Lay the rest on the counter to avoid splashes.

Step 9:  

Bring the water to the right temperature as listed on the dye’s instructions.   There are only really three companies (LaxDip, RIT, and Throne) and all have different instructions.  Use the directions as instructed….

Step 10:

Water is ready! Add the dye and stir in order to make sure there are no clumps. Turn down the water to a light simmer so it won’t spit dye up the head where you don’t want it. If you notice this, quickly remove head and run water on it.

Step 11:

Put the gloves on and place the head in the pot.

Tip- Remember that the head will darken after it’s dyed.  If you cool the head down and still want it darker, you can always re-dip.   Since this is a faceoff head, I want to get the color I want and out of the pot.  I tried to get the Atlas LC blue on this.

Step 12: Remove head from the dye gently rinse.  Place in freezer for five minutes.

Step 13: Remove head from freezer and allow to get back to room temperature and remove the vinyl.  The sections should peel up pretty easy once you get a lift on them. There will be stubborn section of cold dry glue….how do you remove those?  Rubbing Alcohol. A little bit on a rag will quickly separate the glue from the head.

Step 14:  

Clean up. This is the most important part, get your parents help if needed.  Carefully and slowly pour the dye down the drain. Rinse the pot and place aside (on a rag).  Then, clean any area that was near the dye process.

Step 15:  

Allow for the head to completely dry, string, and go hit the wall.

As you can see in the video, I had a slight bleed in the top scoop hole and a few spots I had a glue overrun but I’ll take that any day over a massive bleed.  

And that’s the inside out dye! Thanks for reading!  Use #TheGopherProject on your string ups to earn a future spotlight or string up of the week!