Stencil Artists..!
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- detritus0
You're a star, bjladams, thanks for the input!
Sadly, polystyrene's one of those materials that's hit-or-miss with laser cutting, leaving a dusty, inconsistent edge. Still, I'll give some of the 3-mm a shot as I have some left over from a job a while back.
Thanks all!
- bjladams0
i always use 3-10 mm polystyrene, comes in film form. the 10 mm is best for long term- i cut these for the city departments to use as heavy duty stencils. 3mm or 6mm is better for detailed work, but not as durable- normally lasts 100-200 uses and becomes brittle after a few months if not cleaned or stored properly.
- ESKEMA0
found this with a quick search. never used any but seems nice.
http://www.stencilwarehouse.com/…
- detritus0
Also... I'd ideally like to be able to buy it in A1 and above sizes.
- detritus0
Oh, right! haha, you meant that literally :)
I'm kind of after something I can source easily to use; Something I can order reams/sheets/rolls of from teh innernets.
I used to have a loads of similar 'photo' material in the form of colour plates from the newspaper I worked at a decade or so ago - you're right, it'd be a good material to use. Guess it's weighted a little like a thickish acetate. I've only got one left now, currently stuck to the back of my door - no way in hell I'm using that! :)
- detritus0
Thanks for the response, ESKEMA - what material do you mean when you say 'Radiographs'? All I know of that term is to do with Radiography, which I guess'd mean some kind of photosensitive material?
- ESKEMA0
I've used radiographs, they're a bit hard to cut but are flexible enough and are great keeping details sharp. also they can re re-used practically forever.
- detritus0
Reason I'm asking - I have a wadge of stencils to laser cut this week for a couple of artists - i do this sort of thing off and on here and there.
I've tended toward using a high-quality, thick tracing material or Tyvek, both of which I keep in stock.
Just wondering if there's anything better (/cheaper) I could use instead. A certain amount of rigidity's important - but cardboard's tend to fray at the edges with frequent wetting.
Thanks for any input!
- If you're lasercutting maybe use mountboard and if you're using them a lot, cut duplicates out of vinyl sheet and apply them to the top.orrinward
- to the top. It costs more but at the end you have a nice wall-mountable piece in itself.orrinward
- The way the paint drips on the vinyl looks great.orrinward
- Can't cut vinyl, sadly, and mountboard can be a tempestuous slut in the laser machine. Thanks, though.detritus
- whereRI0
there is a special kind of cardboard, the brown one, that comes in big ol' rolls that works great, its quite thin but hardy.
*looks in pocket, sees 2 cents missing.
- thecreativefire0
acetate?
- detritus
Do you have an 'ideal' material to make stencils, particularly somewhat reusable ones, from?
ta!