dying lots of the same thing

[SkaBob]

Is there any way I can dye a disc that doesn't require me to cut new vinyl every time?

Has anyone tried using paint on masking agents when dying?

I'm curious what sort of methods DD and other shops that dye lots of the same thing use to keep from having huge amounts of waste output and cut down on recurring vinyl expense...

[marmoset]

I can't think of any non-adhesive masking agents that won't let dye weep underneath.
I also can't think of any re-useable adhesive masks.

Part of the beauty of vinyl is that it will stretch a little- this helps you conform your flat vinyl mas to the curved surface of a disc. If you are trying to reuse the mask, this stops being a good thing when you pull the vinyl off your disc. the mask distorts into unrecognizeable shapes. Or it tears.

[SkaBob]

hmm...I wonder if there's some way it could be done with a brush-on masking agent and stencils, though... When I was big into r/c cars, there was stuff you could use to mask the clear bodies when you paint them...Lexan paint is, however, less "fluid" than dye

I wonder if the paint on latex the fetish kids use would work...meh.. It'd still be a bunch of excess plastic in the trash every day, though.

[SkaBob]

Posting an update that seems interesting from a web page talking about dying yo-yos:
http://www.skilltoys.com/yoyocraft/paint/liquid.htm

He recommends using Elmer's glue to mask with, and he's talking about dying things for 20 minutes or more. Anyone tried this on a golf disc?

[riverboy]

Posting an update that seems interesting from a web page talking about dying yo-yos:
http://www.skilltoys.com/yoyocraft/paint/liquid.htm

He recommends using Elmer's glue to mask with, and he's talking about dying things for 20 minutes or more. Anyone tried this on a golf disc?

Never used elmer's glue but if the surface is clean hot glue works quite well.

[spitfire]

Posting an update that seems interesting from a web page talking about dying yo-yos:
http://www.skilltoys.com/yoyocraft/paint/liquid.htm

He recommends using Elmer's glue to mask with, and he's talking about dying things for 20 minutes or more. Anyone tried this on a golf disc?

You can use Elmers glue as a mask to cover something that you already dyed. So if you have 3 pictures on a disc and you dyed one of them, you could cover that one up with elmers while dying the other 2.

[SkaBob]

Would it not work from a bare disc, to prevent bleeding into the design you want dyed?

[SkaBob]

Another link I found, this is the liquid mask I mentioned from my r/c days...or at least, something similar:
http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/div/div3000.htm

If nobody's tried it, I'll probably give it a go. It's sure cheap enough.

[BennettUA]

I've used Elmer's for masking.

Here, I dyed the Dead bear first, then masked to do the background.


Masked the Stones logo to do this background, the white areas were covered in glue.


Here's a pic of the glue after it's dried, before the dye:


The key is to let the glue dry completely -- easy to tell, the glue becomes transparent when done(see the pic above), and also let it dry again AFTER dyeing before trying to remove. I panicked the first time, tried to wipe it off and ended up with a big goopy mess. Just sat it in front of the fan for a few minutes and it was fine, easy to remove.

Elmer's is great though -- easy to work with, cheap, easy to find, and it WORKS!

[BennettUA]

More pics of the process. This is on an X-out Pro Wraith.


This is after the dye, in the sink. The glue is visibly wet. This is right before I tried to wipe it off. DON'T WIPE!!!!!! Just be patient, put the disc in front of a fan on low, and wait for the glue to dry.



Peeling the glue off. The smaller strands just kinda flake off with a little thumbin'. This was my first time trying it, and I was just amazed at how well it not only protected/ masked the disc, but how easy it was to clean up.



This is the large piece of removed glue. The glue obviously took some of the dye with it, but not much. Look at the first pic of the finished disc and tell me that Red ain't RED RED RED. That was August, and the color is still as vibrant as it was then. (this is Pro plastic)

[Claytoon]

That is an awesome example of using Elmer's. I had been planning on creating a tie-dye style dye using elmer's and a screwdriver/spinner setup. Just hadn't done it yet and was wondering how it would turn out. Now I know it will leave crisp lines and not bleed, which should be cool. I will post pics whenever I get around to it. Also going to try a dye from the yo-yo link posted above that shows it bleeding a little more...like that too. Maybe tomorrow.

[BennettUA]

That is an awesome example of using Elmer's. I had been planning on creating a tie-dye style dye using elmer's and a screwdriver/spinner setup. Just hadn't done it yet and was wondering how it would turn out. Now I know it will leave crisp lines and not bleed, which should be cool. I will post pics whenever I get around to it. Also going to try a dye from the yo-yo link posted above that shows it bleeding a little more...like that too. Maybe tomorrow.

I tried some tye-dye work with Elmer's this weekend on my machine, didn't work how I planned. The glue spreads pretty quickly, certainly faster than I expected. If you want to do this, use a very low speed and a good bit of glue. If the glue is TOO thin, it won't protect as well, so make sure you use enough. (but not toooo much )

[SkaBob]

How much is too little?

Did you wait for the glue to dry? From the wording of your post, it sounds like you dyed it while the glue was still wet or something...

[cjskier]

How about rubber cement? I always thought the Elmers glue would dissolve off in the dye.

[SkaBob]

Rubber cement might also work, but it would be much harder to deal with.

Elmer's glue can be painted on pretty well with minimal effort, which is essentially what I'm going for. Something I can lay a stencil down on the disc and paint off the masked sections quickly and without much fuss. Doing a lot of them doesn't help me much if I can't do it quickly...