Anybody ever "paint" rope light to change color?

[tjflory]

Greetings.

I have 150 feet of white incand. rope light. I need green for christmas trees.

Anybody ever "paint" rope light to change color? Please share details and results.

Thanks!

tj

[vincerules]

I'm planning doing this soon.after some googling I found a lot of people suggest krylon x-metals.

[Jerry]

Yes, I did this last year with the Krylon paint and some other brands as well. The results were not very good. The paint took MONTHS to dry. It remained very sticky for a long time. I think it may be due to the silicone mold release they use when they make the rope. I didn't try it, but you may get faster dry time if you clean the rope first with some kind of solvent . I also found it takes several coats of paint to get a good color, the white lights just seem to shine right through with just one coat. I finally gave up and bought the color rope light I wanted. GOOD LUCK !

Jerry

[Techster]

I forgot who had mentioned it at the Christmas Expo, but they turned me on to painting rope light. I have painted white rope light blue and red with Krylon stained glass paint. It does a pretty good job, its just not as deep a color as the colored rope light but it worked.

Good luck,

Mike

[tjflory]

Yes, I did this last year with the Krylon paint and some other brands as well. The results were not very good. The paint took MONTHS to dry. It remained very sticky for a long time. I think it may be due to the silicone mold release they use when they make the rope. I didn't try it, but you may get faster dry time if you clean the rope first with some kind of solvent . I also found it takes several coats of paint to get a good color, the white lights just seem to shine right through with just one coat. I finally gave up and bought the color rope light I wanted. GOOD LUCK !

Jerry

Jerry.

I took your advice and cleaned with den alcohol, but like you said, the paint has remained very sticky.

I'm thinking the solvents in the paint are reacting with the plastic.

I put on 1 good cover coat and it actually looks pretty good!

Thanks for your help!

tj

[Arnoldc]

Tj.. one idea.. go to your local rc hobby shop. They have a paint that matches some of the monocoat (covering you put on a plane) this stuff is designed to go on platics and such. It is a little expensive, but seems to work well.

When I get home ill see if I have some left. If I do ill do a test for you.

Arnold

[LOR Staff]

Not any Kryron paint, Krylon X-METALS. Regular paint (including the Krylon Plastic paint) remains tacky. X-Metals is more like a clear lacquer that dries transparent (and fast).

[jbzeus]

I painted some clear ropelight orange last year because I didn't like the rope light labeled orange that was really more of an amber/yellow. It did take a looooooooooooooooooooong time to dry. I have some scraps that still stick together when they're touching. But the rope I used in the display was mounted and is doing just fine. I tried several brands as I was trying to find one that actually dried but none dried much better than another.

Jeff

[LOR Staff]

Krylon X-METALS will dry within 10-15 mins on rope light.

[rgardner518]

What does it look like painted?

[jbzeus]

I was happy with mine. I am fairly particular.

[tjflory]

OK. I found a way to get rid of the "sticky".

I tried several things but ended up with Krylon UV resistant clear.

http://www.krylon.com/products/uvresistant_clear/

I used the matte finish.

I tested it both on bare rope light and on top of Krylon green spray paint (that was sticky after a week). Both cases it dried non-sticky.

Problem solved...

tj

[Jerry]

Glad to hear you found something that works . I'll keep this in mind if I try it again. Thanks for the info.

Jerry

[ErnieHorning]

From the Planet Christmas September 2007 newsletter:

Work with rope light? One technique is to use clear rope light and paint it with Krylon "Plastic" paint or their Stained Glass paint. The biggest challenge is getting the paint to dry, especially using the Stained Glass stuff. Bill Foley figured out if you first wipe the rope light with acetone or lacquer thinner (available in most any store paint department), it makes a world of difference. He's right, it really does. I use acetone. Bill's technical explanation from the PlanetChristmas forums actually said: "Plastics exude a mixture of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) primarily alkalies and substituted benzenes along with a few aldehydes and ketones. This is the reason the paints are slow to dry. The lacquer thinner removes these from the surface of the rope light." Pretty obvious Bill did well in chemistry.