Stencil material help.

[Joe Peacock]

Can anyone tell me what material the stencils that engineers and architects use is made from? You know, the stencils that are green and have circles, triangles and such on them to make it easier to draw stuff. The one I have is .025" thick and kind of floppy. I would appreciate a source for the material too if you know of one.
Thanks,
Joe

[Randy Digby]

Hi Joe. They are more commonly called engineering templates, that might help you in an online search. I'm not sure what material they are made from - and they could be made of several different plastics, depending on the manufacturer. I would guess that the most common material would be polystyrene, but that is only a guess.

EDIT: I did find some online listing "Styrene" as the material the templates are made of.

[Frank Corker]

....or extruded acrylic

[Mitchell Andrus]

[QUOTE=Randy Digby;1299083

EDIT: I did find some online listing "Styrene" as the material the templates are made of.[/QUOTE]

Sheet styrene can be found at hobby shops. It's used for model train and plane building and is available in many thicknesses and sizes. On-line also no doubt.
.

[Joe Peacock]

Sheet styrene can be found at hobby shops. It's used for model train and plane building and is available in many thicknesses and sizes. On-line also no doubt.
.

Thanks for the input. I am looking for a wholesale source. My business has purchased a laser to make stencils for the craft industry so I need to get the right stuff at the right price!!
Joe

[Gary Lyben]

Hello

I don't think you want styrene, most companies say mylar

Here's a stencil company that sells blank material, look their site over

http://tinyurl.com/yjppf4y

They can probably help.


Best regards

Gary

[Richard Rumancik]

Joe: I haven't found mylar in thicknesses larger than .014". Generally that is for drawing film. But .014" is too thin for a good drawing template. Also, I find that mylar will have a raised edge when lasered.

Styrene: it will laser, but it is not especially pretty. It is very brittle and won't take much abuse/bending.

What you probably want is CAB. CAB = cellulose acetate butyrate
See this thread.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=1123213#poststop

However, I can't tell you where to get it, especially the green material. I recall trying to laser a green Staedtler stencil and it lasered well. I used to have a catalog from a custom template manufacturer but can't find it. They used mainly CAB - and the templates were cut on a CNC router. I just did a casual search for material and it was difficult to find suppliers of CAB. Hope you have some success.

You might be able to get clear - I'd try for a matte finish over gloss as it won't show scratches as much.