Silouette cutter question

Mainly for Robin but my keyboard will not do brackets.

I wish to make some stencils for road marking, any suggestions or experience ?
Letters need to be as high as i can get from the cutter.

Do you have a Cameo or Portrait? The Portrait is the smaller one and takes paper about A4 width (210mm). The Cameo can take A3 (or near it). I think both can work with material up to 3 metres long.

I'm guessing that you want a complete stencil on a single page - but there is no reason why you could not join pages together for larger shapes. It can't cut to the edge of a full-size page, but you could cut out unwanted edges afterwards with a scalpel.

How many times do you need to use each stencil? The Portrait will easily cut 200gsm card - and probably 300gsm.

If you want longer lasting stencils and can afford the material it will cut 10 thou plasticard with about 3 or 4 passes of the blade and I believe it will score 20 thou plasticard sufficiently to break out the parts cleanly. But as it is so easy to cut extra copies once you have the design it would probably make more sense just to use cheap card and replace any stencils that get soggy.

I have heard that the Portrait is better for working with plasticard because, being smaller it is more rigid.

Not sure if any of this is any help. If not, please explain more clearly what you want to know.

...R

Cameo.

I do not have access to it at the moment and am wondering if there is a stencil alphabet available.

The sort with tags to stop the middle falling out of O etc.
There is apparently a material for repeated use for this.

It is pricey though.

I really need something in a roll, paper may do at a pinch as it only needs to be used four times.

Boardburner2:
I do not have access to it at the moment and am wondering if there is a stencil alphabet available.

Because I use Linux I dont use the Silhouette software.

I do my drawing with Libre Office Draw and it has the ability to convert a character to a polygon so I would expect to be able to cut it out.

If you are designing large characters it should be straightforward to put in tags manually - just position a suitable rectangle and merge it with the letter shape.

...R

Thanks i will have a look.
Silouette software is petty awful
I use corel and easy cut or cutwizard.
Kraft papaer is cheap but needs laser cutting.
Most stencil material for cameo is very expensive in the size i need.

The Silhouette will cut sticky-backed vinyl very nicely - the stuff you use to cover kitchen shelves etc, and buy by the metre (yard?) at the hardware store. I wonder could it be set to cut right through the backing sheet. Maybe that would give nice "plastic" stencils.

On the other hand you might need a very long backing sheet underneath the vinyl if you are not relying on its own backing sheet.

...R

I find fablon too sticky for this application.
Got lucky at a local sign shop though and picked up 3 metres of the proper stuff cheap.

Worked a treat.I did have to cut it lengthwise though to fit my machine.

Boardburner2:
I find fablon too sticky for this application.

Sprinkle talcum powder on it ?

...R

:slight_smile:
Just tried it , works very well.

Boardburner2:
Just tried it , works very well.

Thanks for testing. I must remember that :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

...R