Accelerating Fade

[Ethan Wellin]

So I goofed up a color this afternoon, was going for a tan-ish yellow and wound up with yellow-ish brown. Its not horrible, but too dark for what I'm trying to do. I know the dye won't come out per-say, but are there any tricks to lighten it up? By comparing it to some of my older dyes, I'm thinking it'll be about the right color after like a year of fading... any way to just simulate those effects? Maybe leave it out in the sun? chemical solutions?

Thanks guys!

[Thatdirtykid]

not sure how sharp of lines you have, and this may make it beed, but you could soak the disc upside down in acetone for increments until it fades some. avoid wiping at it as that could smear the dye, maybe blot it a little if soaking isn't enough?

[Ethan Wellin]

Actually no lines yet, it was a white disc, and I was pretty much just trying to put a base color on, so its solid brown, and I need solid tan. I could try acetone, but I'm a little fearful that it may eat the plastic, not just the dye

[AciDBatH666]

Rit has color remover. I've used it once. I tried to get some light yellow off a disc. It didn't really remove it, but it did lighten it up. Throw a whole package of that in a big ziplock with your disc and let it sit for a week. I did mine for a whole weekend and it lightened it up a little bit. Nothing super dramatic, but it technically did lighten it. At first I tried heating it, but then realized that it wasn't something that was going to happen in 30 minutes. If you do soak it, put it a container and in a place where you can let it sit for a good long period of time. I'd go the ziplock route and put it outside somewhere. Possibly in the sun to let it naturally heat it up.
Good luck

[ChUcK]

At the risk of sounding like a dick, you might need to just suck it up and soldier on, brown or not. Rit is a little too permanent for erasure/lightening techniques. Plus, the more you try to 'antidote' a work in progress, the more stuff that usually goes wrong i.e. finding a chemical that whoops eats right through polyurethane.

For the longest time, all my friends threw nice looking dyes while my bag was full of craptastic experiments, all because I tried out techniques on my plastic before someone else's. Thankfully I have lost most of those frankendiscs by now, and have a decent bag o dyes.

[USAnarchy]

The only method i have found to help fade a dye off of a disc is the Sun Bake method.

You could always buy a UV-B Bulb and let it show on a disc for a few days. UV-B bulbs are what we use in labs to expedite the effects of UV rays on items.

A few days of direct UV rays from one of these bulbs should be about the same as a month of indirect sunlight.

[The Euphoric Nightmare]

Try this.

It'll only work if you wish to fade all dyed areas on the disc, or you risk bleeding.

You have scrap vinyl lying about.
Cover the dyed areas with the scrap.
Then place in a bowl of water on the stove.
Heat the water to steam.
Let sit a hour.
Remove the vinyl and note that the back of the vinyl will have taken some dye.
Repeat until you've faded the dye to your desire.

Has worked for me before,
Noticed it after using multiple masks on a disc. The second mask took some of the dye and lightened the color it was protecting.

[ChUcK]

I've noticed that vinyl pulls out fresh dye as well. I have not tried it with 2 or 3 day old dye, let alone a year old dye, but it could work.

[Luv2Disc]

You could try masking off the are you want lightened like Nightmare said but try using sum goo gone extreme in a cup then apply with either a small brush or an eye dropper and apply small amounts at a time and wipe between applications to see if it lightens it up. My experience with extreme goo gone is little but that it's like semi-diluted acetone and will take up color on a dye pretty instantly if doused in a concentrated area, just an idea.

[BennettUA]

The vinyl idea could work well.
I've also found that Elmer's glue can take out some dye. Just squeeze it on there, let it dry for a day or so, and peel it off.
Here's my example, one of the first discs I dyed. The glue masked very well, but also pulled out some dye. Although not very noticeable, as the red is still very vibrant today.