How to Stencil Dye Disc Golf Discs – A Rare Discs Tutorial Guide

Welcome to Rare Discs’s how to stencil dye disc golf discs. Today I’m going to show you how to put your own logo onto a disc golf disc using a hot dip stencil process. While this is one of the easier disc golf dyeing techniques, success still depends on a number of factors including: disc type, dye type, ratio and times.

We at Rare Discs have simplified this process and offer a kit that includes premium dyeable discs, the best dyes and some sheets of vinyl. However, if you do not have this kit, make sure to get a premium disc, dye specifically for synthetic fabrics, some permanent vinyl sheets and some acetone. Branded vinyl works best but we have had luck with some of the cheaper permanent vinyl sheets from your favourite e-retailer – so long as we are careful to watch for bubbles.

Step One: Choose Your Disc

Premium plastics such as star or champion work best for hot dip, and it’s best to find a disc with no existing stamp as many stamps are actually pressed into the disc and can cause some bleeding.

Step One-Point-Five: Remove the Stamp

If you have to remove the stamp, pure acetone and a cotton ball or paper towel works like a stamp eraser, although make sure to do this outside or somewhere with good ventilation. Also do note acetone eats plastic so it is important to clean up any surfaces that it may have touched including the disc, your sink or countertops.

Step Two: Wash Your Disc

Use dish soap and a soft cloth, or melamine sponge.

Step Three: The Stencil

Choose a stencil. This can be any symbol or logo, but the easiest to work with are high contrast black and white images with a low level of detail, especially if you are hand cutting.

Now, print out your stencil and cut it out using a craft knife. I recommend reinforcing the back of the vinyl with some packing tape so that you don’t accidentally cut all the way through and end up with a bunch of loose vinyl pieces. If you have a vinyl cutter, even better!

Step Four: Apply Stencil to Disc

Remove the excess vinyl, wherever you want the dye color to go through onto the disc. Then, using masking tape or some other light stickiness tape, tranfer the remaining vinyl onto the disc working from the center outwards. As you can see we’ve got some parts of the original disc colour showing through and these parts will be the ones that receive the dye. It is also extremely important to put the vinyl onto the disc carefully to avoid airbubbles around the edges or the ink will bleed.

Step Five: Dye Mixture

These next steps can vary a bit so this should just serve as a general guideline for times and dye amounts. The amount of dye needed will vary on plastic type, heat, and how dark you want your stamp to be.

Since the next steps use industrial strength chemicals and dyes, it is extremely important to have proper ventialation and PPE. These dyes will stain clothes, skin, appliances and countertops, so work carefully and safely. We recommend gloves and a respirator, but I go the extra step and cover my counter in a towel too.

Now that you’ve got your PPE set, in an old metal pot that is larger than your disc, mix about 8 grams of dye powder with 100ml of acetone. The ratio of dye powder to acetone can vary depending on how vivid you want your colours. It’s important to mix it up to avoid ending up with excessive powder on the disc after dipping. Once mixed, add about one liter of hot water. I use a kettle to heat my water to 70 celcius and keep the stove on its lowest setting, but a meat thermometer can help manage temperatures as well. It’s important that the water is not too hot or it can deform the disc, although some plastics like Innova Champion or MVP Proton do need a hotter temperature, around 80 celcius, to take on the dye.

Step Six: Dip the Disc

Dip your disc, rolling it in gently from one side to the other, being careful to not splash up the edges. Rolling it in helps avoid air bubbles. I also make sure to avoid touching the sides of the pot as those may be substantially hotter than the disc and can melt.

Now let your disc sit for between 3 and 10 minutes depending on the type of disc, its ink, and how bright you want the colour. Since we are dipping black first on a softer plastic, I am letting this disc sit for around 6 minutes. You can always add more ink if it does not turn out dark enough, or re-dip the disc after washing – until you remove the vinyl.

Step Seven: Wash and Peel

Wash the disc with hot water and dish soap and then use tweezers to peel the vinyl. I recommend peeling the vinyl immediately while it is still hot to avoid the glue setting and preventing dye from touching the disc. It’s a mess to clean up excess vinyl glue and I don’t recommend using acetone as it may smear your existing ink. Isopropyl alcohol seems to work fine and not smear as much.

Step Eight: Repeat?

If you want a second colour, peel off only the vinyl to reveal where on the disc you want to be dyed colour number 2.

Use a second clean pot and repeat the above process from “dye mixture” with your second colour. Again, wash off with hot water and peel off the remaining vinyl or you’ll end up with glue smudges to clean up.

And yeah, there we have it! Your very own custom dyed vinyl disc.

Hot Tips

• The dye substance can be stored in a glass jar and reused next time, just add a bit more powder to make it work again. Make sure to save it in a glass jar. Plastic will melt from the acetone.
• You can use acetone to remove the excess dye from your pot. Be careful to remove all acetone afterwards.

Conclusion

If you use this process, we would love to see the results! Send us pics on social media, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or put them on Rare Discs. You can sell them on the site or share them in the comments below! If you have suggestions, please send them along. Thank you for your time.