Mylar Stencils

[Rick Maitland]

I have a customer who is wanting mylar stencils for airbrush tattoo's. I have tryed doing these in the past but could never get anything to turn out that had very much detail in it. The images will all be very small (1.5" x 1.5"). Do any of you have settings for 10MM mylar for a 30W machine? What setting would put the least amount of heat on the mylar, higher speeds with more power, or low speeds with low power?
Thanks!

[Frank Corker]

I would think that the quickest speed is going to cause the least distortion, your biggest issue is going to be heat, I really think you have to be looking a doing test pieces to achieve the best result for your machine. Some lasers give out more power than others of the same wattage.

[Keith Outten]

Rick,

Awhile back I talked to a Universal Rep about tattoo stencils and he said they had developed a technique for cutting multiple layers of mylar concurrently that worked perfectly. He didn't provide any details but was willing to demonstrate his machines capability for anyone interested.

You didn't provide any details concerning your efforts, are you cutting one at a time? Are you using a substrate to provide support for the thin mylar while you are cutting?

.

[Joni Campbell]

Hi,
I cut 5 mil. mylar stencils all the time. I run at 100% speed 100% power and 1000dpi and get beautiful results.

[Rick Maitland]

I think you are right Frank. I have mostly tryed high speeds. If to much cutting is done in one area though, the stencil will start to warp. I may try to get more air from my compressor for assist boost. Kieth we buy stencil for laser engraving that can be stacked. I read on a past post that you can put tissue paper in between the material but have not tryed it. I use the standard vector grid for cutting. Keith are you thinking I should use something else that may work better? Joni have you cut small images with high detail with those settings? Does increasing the DPI help any when cutting? If and when I get some good results I will post again with pictures. Thanks

[Scott Perry]

Joni, where do you get your mylar stencils?