Cricut Maker for stencils

[kdnolin]

My wife designed and made some stencils for me with her Cricut Maker. I’m happy with the results so far. She used Cricut Premium Removable Vinyl to make them. One issue I have with them is I have to peel out the letters after they are cut. I find the vinyl sticks good to the steel and they are not reusable, but are cheap enough it’s not a concern.

Does anyone with more experience have any tips for making stencils?

 

[kdnolin]

Here are some practice etches.
I used salt water with q tip and a
9v-1.5amp power supply to etch.
Positive ground to etch and then negative ground to darken.

 

[R.C.Reichert]

Here are some practice etches.
I used salt water with q tip and a
9v-1.5amp power supply to etch.
Positive ground to etch and then negative ground to darken.

I found a lady locally who makes vinyl stickers with one of these machines, so I just get her to make me stencils. They work great. So do you just reverse the alligator clips and that darkens it? I've been using gun blueing to darken.

 

[kdnolin]

Yes, to etch I put positive on the metal and negative on the q tip. Then reverse them to darken. There are many different power sources that can be used. For my first try I used a 12 volt deep cycle from my boat. It was a little too big for this. The metal got too warm and the stencil lifted in places, but it etched deep and fast.

 

[Willie71]

View attachment 1289149 My wife designed and made some stencils for me with her Cricut Maker. I’m happy with the results so far. She used Cricut Premium Removable Vinyl to make them. One issue I have with them is I have to peel out the letters after they are cut. I find the vinyl sticks good to the steel and they are not reusable, but are cheap enough it’s not a concern.

Does anyone with more experience have any tips for making stencils?
View attachment 1289149

this is a great idea especially for one off stencils.

 

[Randydb]

I'm going to put my wife to work making some stencils for me on her cricut. Glad I found something useful for that machine besides making cards and pages for the kids photo albums.

Fortunately my wife doesn't have an account here too. If she saw me saying bad things about her cricut, any stencil she made for me would probably read "Dumbass." I'm pretty brave when she isn't looking!

 

[Heli00]

If you're going the stencil route you could also acid etch, without an electric etching machine.

 

[E.Carlson]

I'm going to put my wife to work making some stencils for me on her cricut. Glad I found something useful for that machine besides making cards and pages for the kids

She can do a bunch more than just stencils! A cricut can handle light leather too. Both the clip patch on the sheath and the leather makers mark tag on the bag were both cut on my wife's cricut.