Noobie Dye Question Thread

[burntneuron]

How can I get this type of fading/coloring onto a disc???

Im actually going to try and recreate the original version of his guitar (with all of the imperfections and scuffs, etc...) Any Idea how I could do the sunburst? And also any ideas on how to get a nice woodgrain?

Not too sure on the wood grain, I'd think something like the marbling effects with plastic bags, but with a different medium to get the wood grain effect, maybe the shaving cream method would work if you could mimic the effect by hand.

For the gradient, check out the Gradient Tool thread by MOON. You'd need a way to anchor the disc flat instead of upright, but with a really diluted black, a bunch of dips, and patience I'd think you could get that effect.

 

[splata]

Putting disc in freezer

Why do you do this and for how long? Also do yall weed under warm water or cold?
Thanks for the help

 

[BarkBuster]

I weed dry, I peel the remaining vinyl after final dye under warm water and I leave my discs in the freezer for 12-24 hours depending. .02

 

[yawpstang64]

The about a day of cold temperature lets the dye set better initially, which will hopefully delay and reduce the natural blur and fade.
I post-dye weed under warm water; the heat allows the adhesive to come up easier, and will leave less residue.

 

[BarkBuster]

Not too sure on the wood grain, I'd think something like the marbling effects with plastic bags, but with a different medium to get the wood grain effect, maybe the shaving cream method would work if you could mimic the effect by hand.

For the gradient, check out the Gradient Tool thread by MOON. You'd need a way to anchor the disc flat instead of upright, but with a really diluted black, a bunch of dips, and patience I'd think you could get that effect.

Thanks for the response.. I was thinking the same thing about MOON's gradient tool... i have a feeling it would be a lot harder to do with the disc "face down" in the dye as opposed to standing up on edge... maybe ill give it a go! ha

 

[yawpstang64]

I think airbrushing would be the easiest way to achieve the sunburst effect.
For the woodgrain, it may be easiest to cut the major markings of a wood image.

 

[splata]

Thanks for the quick response on the freezer and weeding questions.

 

[burntneuron]

Thanks for the response.. I was thinking the same thing about MOON's gradient tool... i have a feeling it would be a lot harder to do with the disc "face down" in the dye as opposed to standing up on edge... maybe ill give it a go! ha

My thinking was that a face down would give you the circular gradient moving outwards, if you doing it standing on end, you'll end up with a linear gradient from one end of the disc to the other.

I think yawpstang is correct, the absolute best way would be airbrushing. Cutting fine lines and leaving thin black lines would probably give the best wood texture as well.

You'll have to show us how it turns out if you give it a try.

 

[yawpstang64]

Heres one of Bigmanbailye's dyes. Its pretty much the same type of sunburst effect, airbrushed after dying a normal stencil.

I think I'm gonna order an airbrushing setup today.. these are always awesome.

 

[splata]

Getting design centered on disc

Whats the easiest way to do this or is it just trail and error.
Thanks for the help.

 

[agent_peebody]

use a sharpie to make a small X in the center and line up the "nipple" of the disc with the X. or trace the outside of the disc with the sharpie and line it up.

 

[splata]

Thanks for the help. I'll give it a try on my next dye. Is there a multi-color and remask thread? Want to try that next.

 

[yawpstang64]

Hairdryer!

So I had a domey disc, and a design that went near the edges. When applied, the vinyl had a number of ripples near the edges so I tried the hairdryer advice to heat the vinyl a bit, making it slightly more flexible and the bumps smoothed out quite well.
Seems the adhesive on many of the bumps was no longer adhesivey though, and I ended up with a number of bleeds... basically doubling the number of total bleeds I've ever experienced.
What went wrong?

 

[Fishy]

When applied, the vinyl had a number of ripples near the edges so I tried the hairdryer advice to heat the vinyl a bit, making it slightly more flexible and the bumps smoothed out quite well.
Seems the adhesive on many of the bumps was no longer adhesivey though, and I ended up with a number of bleeds...
What went wrong?

depends on the vinyl, but in my experience when I remove a crease it seems that the adhesive pulls away from one side of the vinyl on the crease, basically doing what you are describing, I still get bleeds in the area where a crease used to be. Not sure how to fix that except to try and work your vinyl evenly from the center outward, harder to do on domey discs, flat does not like to be bent. you might also keep your hairdryer close to warm it up as you lay it down. I use a vinyl squeegee instead of card, seems to allow me more pressure evenly.
hope that helps and doesn't confuse even more

 

[ZBoazMobster]

Why is it that Sign Blazer can't real all EPS files? In the preview they're black, when loaded, they're blank. Some previews you can see... when loaded, they be blank.

 

[LoPan12]

My guess would be something was traced as white, so when you preview, you see the outline of the shape. But in the main window, it shows you as it would be with the colors. Since these programs are used to cut vinyl for multi-colored signs as well, and just cut each color seperately, under the assumption you have different colors of vinyl.
But that's just my guess...I only been playin with these for a week now...

 

[tallpat]

Why is it that Sign Blazer can't real all EPS files? In the preview they're black, when loaded, they're blank. Some previews you can see... when loaded, they be blank.

This sounds similar to an issue I had when vectorizing files in Inkscape... It turns out that when I was doing the "trace bit map" function, I wasn't deleting the "original image" layer underneath the "vectorized image" layer when I was saving the file as *.eps. You have to make sure to delete the original image layer before you save the *.eps file. I don't know if this is related to the issue you're experiencing, but it might be worth investigating.

 

[jenb]

I have some champ plastic that is the most unfortunate shade of almost completely clear light green, and I lose sight of it against practically everything, especially sky and grass. Is there a really cheap and easy way to dye champ plastic a bright solid color that is easily visible? Where do I buy the dye?

 

[burntneuron]

Rit dye should help you out, any craft store should have it, most big box retail stores have the basic colors. You get a teal to take, or lime green. If it's mostly clear, it'll take just about any color, Red/Fuchsia should also go well on it.

If you just want to dye the whole thing it'll be a cake walk. Just mix your dye, heat it to temp, submerge disc in dye, chopsticks or something on the bottom will keep it from resting on the bottom of the pan.

 

[NoThingness]

You could also dye the bottom of the face plate only. This give a neat contrast between a colored face plate and the original color of the rim. Just heat up dye and spoon it into the underside of the faceplate. Leave for 7-10 mins pour out repeat until desired color is met