Get a Grip (How To)...

[hurricane7]

After commenting on TwoChain's thread about a problem he was having with his Mortal Kombat dye, I started thinking about making a little "how to" on the way I make my "handle" for doing hot dip dyes. It's just something I came up with that works for me, and thought I could share. Maybe someone can learn from it, and maybe someone will chime in with a better way... and I can learn from them! I haven't seen a post like this yet, so...here goes!


First, I take a scrap piece of vinyl about 2.5" wide x 12" long (It just so happens that I am left with a piece that wide from every mask I cut on my plotter as "feed waste"). I also cut a small piece of cardboard (cereal box works great) 2" x 2" or close to it...

Peel the backing paper on the vinyl back halfway, and fold it slightly so it stays back...

Place the small cardboard piece along the folded edge of the backing paper, and centered so there is about .25" on either side...

With your right hand, grab the folded backing paper and vinyl. With your left hand, hold back the other end of the vinyl strip and position the edge of the cardboard just off center on the bottom of the flight plane...

 

[hurricane7]

…Continued
Lay the vinyl with exposed adhesive smoothly onto the flight plane and press down up to the cardboard...

Fold back the cardboard and other half of the vinyl with backing paper remaining to just past center...

Remove remaining backing paper and push cardboard down flat (not shown). Fold vinyl sharply and tightly back over the cardboard and onto the other side of the flight plane, leaving about .125" or so of vinyl between the cardboard and the center of the disc...

This creates a "seal" of vinyl around the cardboard which helps prevent the cardboard from getting soggy when rinsing, and also helps keep the vinyl from peeling up when it gets hot during the dip...

 

[hurricane7]

…Continued
Make folds on each side of the "handle" you've created so that when the vinyl gets hot while dipping, it stay up a bit and you can easily grab it...

The centered "handle" lets me lower or lift the disc easily with one hand, allowing my other hand to wipe with a paper towel while checking how the dye is taking...or...cleaning up drips...or whatever I may need to do with my other hand!

Hope this helps. It works for me.

Peace,
-Jeff

 

[roggenb3]

That's pretty cool.

I used to make handles out of masking tape but stopped after this one time where the tape failed as I picked it up and the disc fell into the dye and splashed everywhere. I never really have any issues lifting it by using the rim.

 

[BennettUA]

Great write-up and an excellent idea for anyone who dyes! Trust me and everyone else with any amount of experience, you WILL drop your disc at some point even when you think you have it handled well! Do yourself the favor, save your counters and floors from being splash dyed and use this method, doesn't take much time or effort, well worth the few minutes for ease and safety!

 

[Puckstopper]