[DIY] Tips for Dying Your Roller Skate Wheels

The Basics

There are plenty of great, comprehensive Youtube videos out there on how to dye roller skate wheels. But here are few quick pointers:

Before dying, you can remove printed graphics with acetone. (Note that many modern nail polish removers are not 100% acetone, and these solutions may not remove graphics as easily as pure acetone.)
RIT “DyeMore” Synthetic Dye is perfect for dying polyurethane wheels. You can even use it to dye polyurethane bushings/cushions!
To be honest, I don’t follow a perfect science when dying but my general process is…
- Boil enough water in a pot to submerge the wheels.
- Add some dye, move the burner to medium heat, and dip a paper towel in to check the shade.
- If the shade looks right, add in the wheels. If the shade looks too light, I add more dye. If the shade looks too dark, I add more water.
- Use a slotted spoon or tongs to remove the wheels to check on the color. Remove when desired color and give them a rinse.
RIT All-Purpose powder dye works, but it is not nearly as effective as DyeMore. All-Purpose will take hours if not overnight where as DyeMore can take minutes. However, if you’re going for a specific pastel shade, you might prefer to use powder as it’s less likely that you’ll accidentally dye the wheels too dark.
Use a separate pot for dying. Do not cook food with a pot you use for dye. You can always get a cheap pot at a thrift store to use specifically for dying.

The secret to fancy dye patterns on wheels is a hot glue gun!
- Simply put hot glue all over the areas of the wheel that you don’t want to take the dye, and then submerge the wheel in dye.
- I went fairly simple in the above example with stripes, but you could do polka dots, swirls, stars… anything you can dream up!
- I learned this trick from @eat.shit.daily, and you can see some amazing results in her IG Story Highlight labeled “DIY Goddess.”
If you want dye half a wheel or an edge to edge slice…
- Stick a chopstick (etc.) through a few wheels and balance this on top of a plastic container.
- Then fill the plastic container with dye to the desired height and allow it to sit until you’ve achieved your desire color. (See above image).
- I personally recommend putting the wheels in the container first before adding dye, because the liquid will rise if you add the wheels after, and you may end up dying more of the wheel than you planned. But watch out for dye splattering on the wheels as you pour in the dye.