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All About Guns What's your weapon of choice, and why? Discuss the beloved speargun here!

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Old 04-12-2020, 02:45 AM   #1
Diving Gecko
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Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

Hope you are doing well in these trying times. I am not belittling the severity of the pandemic, but nonetheless needed a little fun project so here we go:



Quarantined in the Philippines I found time to try something I always wanted: To dye/color some monofilament. I may have gotten the idea from here years back or perhaps on an accidental visit to a HL forum somewhere
I used a cheap powder dye called Venus and I don't know how UV resistant it is. Time will tell.
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Old 04-12-2020, 03:22 PM   #2
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

Does the color penetrate the mono or just cover the surface? I suspect the latter if it scratches off.
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Old 04-12-2020, 07:12 PM   #3
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

I’ve done this many times with Rit dye. I buy clear mono off fishing websites and dye it black. It’s worked really well and the color seems to penetrate because it never fades out. Fun project, but can be real messy.
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Old 04-12-2020, 11:46 PM   #4
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Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

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I’ve done this many times with Rit dye. I buy clear mono off fishing websites and dye it black. It’s worked really well and the color seems to penetrate because it never fades out. Fun project, but can be real messy.


That’s great to hear and also in line with what I’ve read elsewhere.
The only real variable was that this dye was literally 8 cents for a sachet. So, it may not be as good as Rit. But I’ll report back.

Besides the fun of the project I’ve found that a lot of the mono sold for spearos is way stiffer than it needs to be and has a ton of memory. On the other hand there’s some really supple mono from some of the Japanese brands - and I guess others, too. With dye you can choose your favorite mono and get it to a color you like, too:-)


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Old 04-13-2020, 10:42 AM   #5
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

Looking back, I recall now that I once tried to dye some clear mono red, but the best I could get was a light orange color, so now I’m jealous of how nicely your red mono turned out!
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Old 04-13-2020, 10:32 PM   #6
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

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Looking back, I recall now that I once tried to dye some clear mono red, but the best I could get was a light orange color, so now I’m jealous of how nicely your red mono turned out!
Well, looking at my "source" mono now, I might have been a bit generous calling it transparent. I think it's actually in between opaque white and transparent, so that might have something to say.

This was my first try and it was just for the line of a flasher float. The float came with some very thick black mono and in a current, the line was just too draggy so I wanted something thinner. But it's actually nice to be able to see the line so you can dive down along it and also not get tangled in it.

I think pink and green will be the next batches
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Old 04-13-2020, 11:04 PM   #7
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

Monofilament is often dyed by craft workers for use in various projects such as the stamens for artificial flowers, but there the effect is purely decorative.
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Old 04-14-2020, 12:46 AM   #8
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

Pink one turned out alright, too. Not as rich as the red but still not bad.



A friend here has a wooden gun with green Salvi bands, so will cook up a green batch for him next
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Old 04-14-2020, 05:04 AM   #9
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

One thing to be aware of is that the mono seem to contract a little to a lot depending on the brand. E.g. I have some really supple Japanese mono here but it got about 20% shorter and fatter but the stiffer local stuff didn't contract as much. Whether it gets weaker, I can't test here. But suffice to say that while I still think this has its use, you may want to test if the boiling weakens your choice of line.
The dye I am using calls for 30mins in the boil total, maybe others are less intense.

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Old 04-14-2020, 10:46 AM   #10
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

I think I see the problem with the stuff I tried to dye red. I looked at the packages of mono I use. It’s Momoi leader material and is “smoke blue” to start out, which is kind of translucent blue. The black works great, but I can see now why red wouldn’t. I have both 250 and 300 pound that I’ve dyed. I hunt Northern California, all pretty much down in the rocks and holes and it’s held up fine, so the “cooking” process hasn’t seemed to weaken it enough for me to notice.
You’ve inspired me though. I’m about out of 300#, so I think I’ll find another brand of mono that’s clear, and try a new color!
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Old 04-14-2020, 03:15 PM   #11
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

That's a cool project. Finding the colored mono locally isn't that easy for me, so I'd need to order online if anything. I'd be interested if it does weaken the line any, but for me, testing my 400# line would be a bit of a challenge. I'd need one of Rob Allen's setups for that.
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Old 04-14-2020, 09:52 PM   #12
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Diving Gecko View Post
Hope you are doing well in these trying times. I am not belittling the severity of the pandemic, but nonetheless needed a little fun project so here we go:

http://youtu.be/IHwUvc8Izqo


Quarantined in the Philippines I found time to try something I always wanted: To dye/color some monofilament. I may have gotten the idea from here years back or perhaps on an accidental visit to a HL forum somewhere
I used a cheap powder dye called Venus and I don't know how UV resistant it is. Time will tell.
Holy crap! That came out great! I need to get started on some of my projects in this lockdown!
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Old 04-15-2020, 02:18 AM   #13
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

I did this quite a bit years back. Phil H gave me the instructions fairly simple. One thing I remember is he had me put bleach in the mixture at the end? Dont remember why
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Old 04-15-2020, 01:59 PM   #14
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

It came out really nice. My question is why? What's the importance of the color?
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Old 04-15-2020, 04:59 PM   #15
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Re: Cooking Mono... Spaghetti, I Meant Cooking Spaghetti (A Quarantine Project)

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It came out really nice. My question is why? What's the importance of the color?
It looks really cool! Can’t believe you’d even have to ask that.

Seriously for me the only reason I dye my mono black, or buy black mono, is because when I dive in thick kelp, (well, when we had thick kelp), clear mono was really hard to see when it was wrapped in the kelp, which happens all the time. Black adds some contrast and makes it easier, at least for me. As to the other colors, (red, blue, etc.), they all lose their colors and look black at any depth where there’s little sunlight, and on the north coast, that’s about 20’.

But yeah, aside from that, it’s all cosmetic for the most part...
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