Bulk dying small products

[APSaddlery]

As we continue to grow our e-commerce products I’m looking to find out if there is a quicker way of dying products in bulk production. 
We currently use Hermann oak veg tan (6-7,7-8,9-10) and fiebings pro dye with wool pads 3 different colors. 
I’d like to buy drum dyed leather but I’m not ready to buy 20 sides at a time quite yet. I’ve heard of spray booths but don’t know anyone who uses them or how good they are when dying all sides and the edges. I’m scared that dip dying them would be a waste and saturate the leather too much. Is there anything other techniques that I am missing or could one of the above be better for running 50-100 pieces at a time?  

[fredk]

I reckon dip dyeing is the way to go

I've not found it to be wasteful and it certainly gets the dye well into the leather

[APSaddlery]

25 minutes ago, fredk said:

I reckon dip dyeing is the way to go

I've not found it to be wasteful and it certainly gets the dye well into the leather

Do you just hold it a certain way or do you have a basket that would hold the items?

[fredk]

On 12/13/2021 at 2:32 AM, APSaddlery said:

Do you just hold it a certain way or do you have a basket that would hold the items?

I'm now going to bore the pants off you cos I'm going to tell you how I do it, in detail,

1. I'm most likely not making even close to what you are making but I reckon the technique still holds good

2. equipment; a  deep metal tray, two or three pairs of latex gloves, a selection of bits of stiff wire bent into a long S shape with the bottom of the S turned at right-angle to the top, a  wood or metal bar sticking out somewhere, diluted dye

3. put on two or three pairs of latex gloves. I find that with only one pair the dye can still get on my fingers, two pair is better, and three pair even better to keep fingers clean

4. pour diluted dye into tray

5. start feeding leather items into the tray of dye. How many items depends on the depth of the dye

6. shuffle the items in the dye, first in comes to the top, after a few moments the next one at the bottom comes to the top. Do this a few times. Takes about 2 to 4 minutes

7. start lifting dyed items out. First out should be the one first in.

8. using a hole in the item, a hole for a rivet or snap or sewing, hook on to the bottom of one of the pieces of S shaped wire. As I do so I use my fingers as a squeegee 

9. Hang dyed item up on the bar sticking out of somewhere. I usually have that bar above my dye tray so any dye that drips will be caught in it

10. Allow to dry

11. if necessary repeat steps 5 to 10

I find (afair) I can dip-dye about 10 items in under 10 minutes, not counting set up time. Recently I had just one small coin purse to do and it took four dying sessions each of 4 minutes with a sponge application to get the dye right through and even

[chuck123wapati]

9 hours ago, fredk said:

I'm now going to bore the pants off you cos I'm going to tell you how I do it, in detail,

1. I'm most likely not making even close to what you are making but I reckon the technique still holds good

2. equipment; a  deep metal tray, two or three pairs of latex gloves, a selection of bits of stiff wire bent into a long S shape with the bottom of the S turned at right-angle to the top, a  wood or metal bar sticking out somewhere, diluted dye

3. put on two or three pairs of latex gloves. I find that with only one pair the dye can still get on my fingers, two pair is better, and three pair even better to keep fingers clean

4. pour diluted dye into tray

5. start feeding leather items into the tray of dye. How many items depends on the depth of the dye

6. shuffle the items in the dye, first in comes to the top, after a few moments the next one at the bottom comes to the top. Do this a few times. Takes about 2 to 4 minutes

7. start lifting dyed items out. First out should be the one first in.

8. using a hole in the item, a hole for a rivet or snap or sewing, hook on to the bottom of one of the pieces of S shaped wire. As I do so I use my fingers as a squeegee 

9. Hang dyed item up on the bar sticking out of somewhere. I usually have that bar above my dye tray so any dye that drips will be caught in it

10. Allow to dry

11. if necessary repeat steps 5 to 10

I find (afair) I can dip-dye about 10 items in under 10 minutes, not counting set up time. Recently I had just one small coin purse to do and it took four dying sessions each of 4 minutes with a sponge application to get the dye right through and even

Sounds like Easter to me lol. definitely a tried and true procedure. 

[JLSleather]

Save some headaches and a LOT of time - order the pre-dyed leather if its' available in the shades you want.

Dyeing it yourself "works", but you're likely going to end up with inconsistent shades (important for those who order 10 or 20 of something and want them to match).  PLUS - you'll be out the time

• to order the dyes,
• to mix the shades,
• dip the parts,
• wait for drying

and have the ROOM to dry that many parts, while still having space to work on something else while those are drying.  

Seriously, if you were making "one of" products, then dye it yourself and store less inventory.  But if you're doing "50-100" pieces, buying the leather already dyed is a no-brainer.  We've ordered drum dyed black for a long time... since it's SO popular in formed holsters.  Yes, I order natural leather- mostly for projects getting tooled - and a few other colors I keep a bit of. But around here, an order of 6 or 8 would  be about as big as it normally gets (infrequently goes outside of that).

Wickett-Craig sells drum dyed skirting without a 20-side minimum, if that's your only concern.  But if you're making HUNDREDS of pieces and like H.O. leather, I'd suggest just bite the bullet and get the 20.  The TIME and LABOR you save will astonish you.