Paint Stencils

[David Iannone]

I cut some paint stencils for another sign shop in my area.
He supplied the 1/4" Polystyrene.
1/8" Upspiral bit cutting at 1.3 inches per second.
Each stencil is 16"x48"
1 hour to setup job and cut on the Bot.
Charging $6 per sq./ft. to cut paint stencils or letters out of supplied material. (excluding aluminum thicker than .040)
$72.00 total for 2 paint stencils.

[curtiss]

Is there a special name for a "stencil font" ???

[myxpykalix]

curtis here are some i found in my font library

[knight_toolworks]

I never use an upcut on stencils they are too hard to hold in place. a straight bit is my go to bit. I have done 4'x8' stencils thath ave so much text they take 4 to 5 hours to cut. I had a hard time keeping the material in place and even the pressure foot could not keep the material from lifting. So I finally just used spray adhisive and glued it to a backer material.
But a fair amount of the problem was the kerning some of the letters only had .02 between them and I had to use a 1/16" bit to get the detail.
If they need a durable stencil polycarbonate is great it is very hard to destroy and holds up to scrubbing.

[David Iannone]

Font used was Stencilia from www.dafont.com

The upspiral did make it tough for hold down. I had to sit there and follow along the router holding down with a broomstick...

Steve, do you spray the adhesive right on the material to be cut? Or use transfer tape on the material then spray it?

[knight_toolworks]

usually the material has the protective sheet so I can spray it directly. If I am doing a small stencil out of sintra and a straight bit vacuum may be enough to hold it in place.

[Stagecraft]

David, we do quite a bit of this type of work and I've found a material that is very thin so it sprays well for stencils and cuts beautifully for detailed work when done on a vacuum equipped table and using a dowspiral bit.
We use Wilsonart, or any other laminate countertop material for that matter.
Rather than pay top dollar for it, I usually pick up a few sheets or offcuts at out local Habitat For Humanity Re-Use It store.
It takes some experimentation but I've gone as small as a 1/16" bit and the level of detail you can get is pretty impressive.
We don't limit ourselves to standard stencil fonts, you can use almost any font or graphic if you spend some time inserting "bridges" in CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator. - Boyd