Stencil Cutters

[ravenlures]

Has anyone ever or are using a Curio stencil cutter or other brand, and how did it work for you. I am think about buying one. I see other uses like the many colors of foil to adhere to a lure.

Wayne

[desertbird]

I bought my wife a cricut for Christmas years ago and now use it more than her... lol... I make stick on stencils for my crawdad patterns. I just use shelf liner, cheap and works well.  I have also cut some non-stick stencils out of acetate. The trickiest part is drawing the pattern and getting the sizing right.  But once you get one you have it forever and it repeats the same any time you need them.

[ravenlures]

That's what I want to here.  Anyone else.

Thanks

Wayne

[Brick Steel]

I am really interested in how this works. I've been cutting stencils by hand after first forming plastic sheets over a blank with a shop vac and heat gun.  I then have used a exacto knife and/or Dremel tool to cut out the pattern. I'm pretty limited in what I can do like this. I wonder if when using a stencil cutter (which cuts flat sheets), if those stencils could then be formed over the bait, using the shop vac and heat gun method. 

[whitaker201]

Not without sealing the holes you made in the stencil.

I haven't tried it but you might be able to cut the stencil. Cover the stencil with electrical tape. Then vacuum form.

It might work, it might not. If you try it let us know what the results are.

[desertbird]

1 hour ago, Brick Steel said:

I am really interested in how this works. I've been cutting stencils by hand after first forming plastic sheets over a blank with a shop vac and heat gun.  I then have used a exacto knife and/or Dremel tool to cut out the pattern. I'm pretty limited in what I can do like this. I wonder if when using a stencil cutter (which cuts flat sheets), if those stencils could then be formed over the bait, using the shop vac and heat gun method. 

It wont vacuum form if cut first.  You could set the cut depth real light and score them possibly.

[ravenlures]

You cut the stencil then hold it against the lure then spray. It takes a little practice but it will work I am going to order one this week.

great for flat lures.

Wayne

[turtlebait]

I've been using my wife Cricut and it works great! I've been using sticky vinyl. Make sure the coat of paint under is completely dry and don't stick on the vinyl to hard(If you aren't careful it can pull up the paint). I've also recently built a vacuum form. I haven't tried it yet but I plan on making some stencils by sticking on the vinyl stencil to use as a more accurate cut pattern after the plastic is formed. These vinyls also come in some cool pearl and reflective patterns. I'm excited to play around with that in the future. 

[Brick Steel]

I did some stencil experimenting this week. First I cut a couple of stencils with flat material with an Exacto knife and then vacuum formed them. A couple came out okay and a couple had the cuts enlarge (maybe what Desertbird and Whitaker201were suggesting.) So then I cut a few and before vacuum forming them, I used masking tape over the cuttings to seal them and hopefully keep them from spreading. This worked fine. The cuts retained their shape. I think this may work with stencils cut with a Cricut or Silhouette cutter.  When vacuum forming like this, one of the challenges of a precut stencil is getting it to line up properly during the forming. This works okay for things like a crappie pattern, but don’t know how it will work for stencils the require more precision.

[ravenlures]

I just received my Curio stencil cutter so far good, I just need a different material, mine is .005 and what I ordered is .003 plus different blades.

Wayne