The Dye A Day Thread!

[Thatoneguy978]

haha, basically said the same thing. weird. btw that disc turned out totally bad ass. one of my favs you've done so far.

btw, did you end up hand cutting that one?

Yeah, thanks, I did end up hand cutting the whole thing. It took somewhere between 3 and 4 hours. I weeded as I cut so that kinda helped.

Also AP, I like that faded airbrush look with a hot water wash. I'll have to try that sometime.

 

[Thatoneguy978]

my theory:

the 10 minute intervals allows me to (a) keep the dye a constant temperature and (b) do my cold washes

i don't know if it helps much in the long run with fade/blur or whatever, but they turn out pretty crisp this way

So to keep a constant temperature do you just check by touch to see if you can keep your hands on the pan or do you get real technical with a thermometer?

 

[agent_peebody]

So to keep a constant temperature do you just check by touch to see if you can keep your hands on the pan or do you get real technical with a thermometer?

hands and eyes my friend, hands and eyes.

if i can't touch the pot, it's too hot. if i can just start to see steam coming off the dye, it's PERFECT!

 

[yawpstang64]

So to keep a constant temperature do you just check by touch to see if you can keep your hands on the pan or do you get real technical with a thermometer?

I used a thermometer the first week of dying (the next steak was a bit blue), but now I just set it on low (electric stove keeps a constant temp better than gas though), and just check by touch on the pot

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

hands and eyes my friend, hands and eyes.

if i can't touch the pot, it's too hot. if i can just start to see steam coming off the dye, it's PERFECT!

earlier you said your dye was usually between 125 - 130, how would you know that by looking at it??

 

[Apothecary]

if you dont cure your disc with cold (either water or air temps (refrigeration)) it will blur crazy quick.

 

[Apothecary]

earlier you said your dye was usually between 125 - 130, how would you know that by looking at it??

you can tell by the level of vapor wisping on the surface. use a thermometer and pay attention to the vapor until you can gauge the temp just by looking at it.

 

[Thatoneguy978]

hands and eyes my friend, hands and eyes.

if i can't touch the pot, it's too hot. if i can just start to see steam coming off the dye, it's PERFECT!

Thanks for the tip. I usually like to get it barely steaming too then let it cool for just a bit.

 

[agent_peebody]

if you dont cure your disc with cold (either water or air temps (refrigeration)) it will blur crazy quick.

great minds...

i'm giving my next dye an ice bath as a test for blurring. i might even try it on an FLX disc because they blur pretty quick.

 

[Apothecary]

youre better off throwing it in the fridge for 24 hrs(ive experimented with both ways).

 

[agent_peebody]

we need to team up and pwn the dye industry. i'm getting my plotter soon (ordering this week hopefully)

 

[philman]

Off to the land of Michigan these go. Gifts for somone's kids. Never really been a "Weird Al" kind of guy.

 

[agent_peebody]

amish paradise, nice.

 

[agent_peebody]

ahhh yeahhh, someone got a VIP invite

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

great minds...

i'm giving my next dye an ice bath as a test for blurring. i might even try it on an FLX disc because they blur pretty quick.

I'd like to see your results. Make sure to take pics after taking it out of the fridge, and a few months down the road to compare!

Heres a comparison I did real quick:

and btw philman, amazing discs as always.

 

[hedfan1]

A christmas gift for my parents. I feel less than worthy to post these in this thread but I think they are awesome!

 

[Johnson]

A christmas gift for my parents. I feel less than worthy to post these in this thread but I think they are awesome!

I would also agree, that you did a fine job sir. I'm sure your folks will really like them.

 

[philman]

great minds...

i'm giving my next dye an ice bath as a test for blurring. i might even try it on an FLX disc because they blur pretty quick.

I read somewhere that you can use vinegar to set the dye. Then I read somewhere else that vinegar won't matter because of the type of dye that RIT is. I haven't had a chance to experiment with that yet because were out of Vinegar at the moment.

I may try the fridge thing with this batch and see what happens.

 

[dgdave]

I've never done that as a technique on purpose to darken colors. But I do wash the disc to check the color with the stove still on low and replace the disc on the dye after if I'm not pleased with the color. Guess i just need to pay attention to it more. haha.

btw, here's a disc I just finished.

Christmas gift for a physics geek friend of mine.

Very nice. Was that glue you used to mask it off?

 

[cfair]

vinegar doesn't work with Rit because it is a dye based medium as opposed to a coating medium. Its kind of like the difference between staining an object and painting it. Because Rit dissolves in liquid and essentially stains any part of the disc it touches the vinegar will not aid in rejecting or conducting the rit.

if we were using water based inks on the other hand...

Also I didn't realized it but I have used cold water on the disc in between dunkings. I have a gas stove and just get the dye to a low boiling point so I can see vapor come off of it. I turn the stove off and dunk roughly till the dye cools a good bit. I pull the disc out, put it under a cold tap and relight the stove. The dye reheats while I look over the disc. The thing I don't like is sometimes if I have previous dye down already then the contact paper will seem to pull some of the previous color out of the disc because it is being reheated.

(Note: dye works as a molecular process. So heat allows those molecules to move faster, bleed more, and cold slows them down. It's why heating the dye first makes it both faster and give better color and cold water sucks. I've seen some people have a dye last all winter and then summer rolls around and the heat blurs the nuts out of it... I like the refrigerator idea apoth.)