good thread !

I can give you the brief photoshop version, can't talk to any other editors.

Depends exactly what you're doing with it. But if you're referring to making a stencil out of a picture, you'll need to desaturate the image first (basically make it black and white or greyscale) then use the image->adjustments->threshold and then play with the slider.

There's some other tweaking you can do, adjusting levels, color balance, things like that before/after you greyscale the image so the threshold adjustment will come out better. That's a quick overview that should get you going, just takes some messing around with to get the hang of.

are you f'ing serious???????

haha.. wow.. i might have to pick one of those up!!! That would make it sooo much less stressful! I have such a hard time keeping my curved lines consistent.

I'm doing a bottom stamp with cold dye by pooling the dye in the disc.
how long should it sit for a solid set and is there anything else i should know about doing it this way?

yup thats what i thought. Then i went and looked at the prices for a low end plotter, and were talking like $700. :\ Unless i dont know about a small desk top type of some sort, they are expensive

make sure to mask out the inside of the rim unless you want it dyed as well. You can heat the dye up if you want and spoon it into the bottom of the disc to get quicker results. You are best to check the dye every few mins until the desired colour is achieved. This can be done by picking up the disc and giving it a slight tilt to expose some of the plastic. This will take much longer with a cold dye.

Also you can mask out the bottom of the disc in area that you wish not to be dyed.

thanks, good advice. I've got a sheet down in the with a design that's poorly cut:thmbdown:. It's been in for 90 min cold.

When I do a bottom dye, I heat up a pan of just plain water and keep that warm and float the disc in it, then spoon in warm dyes, my dye times are about equivalent this way.

US Cutter has 12" and 24" options for under $300
http://www.uscutter.com/Vinyl-Cutters--Value_c_4.html

Pot of water is a great idea! I will do this on my next bottom plate dye. Thanks