I hate my stencils.

[A.McPherson]

Bummer that they just didn't slow down and answer the question... oh well vote with your legs, as the saying goes!!

 

[Drew Riley]

Just a small note, to stand up for graphic designers of all sorts...

Customers (us) often provide small images that look good on a screen, but scale poorly. This is one of the reasons that things end up pixelated sometimes. At least that's what my buddy who works on phone books tells me...

Get the very best image you can find, or have someone with design experience to draw it up for you. As we all know:garbage in = garbage out.

What's a phone book?

 

[A.McPherson]

I'm not really sure if they actually exist anymore...

 

[kuraki]

I'm not really sure if they actually exist anymore...

They do. We get a ream of them at the office and I take them home to cut them up

 

[Brock Cutlery]

Just got off the phone with Patricia at IMG. It was a very nice experience. Not just pleasant, but knowledgeable and helped me work through what I need. So far so good!
She also gave me some good advice on caring for stencils.

 

[Ken H>]

My experience with Patricia at IMG was the same, very pleasant and learned a lot.

 

[Jesenius]

Your etch looks pretty darned good to me. Can you elaborate on the process?

I'm sorry for late answer, I missed it. Process contains few steps:
1. At first clean the place where logo will be placed (as usually). Quality of the mark depends on quality of surface, i.e. highest grit used better details etched. That means polished surface gets best details.
2. PCB film is covered on both sides by thin foil. Remove one (usualy two stickers are used). Place PCB film on place from side to side. No hot iron is required for this purpose, just use bank or any other card and press on it from side to side for better contact.
3. You require logo (or another graphic design) on foil for laser or ink jet printer. Place it on PCB film and fix it by stickers.
4. Expose it by UV light (need some experimenting for right amount of time). I use one 8W UV light tube for about two and half minutes.
5. When done, carefully remove logo then remove second foil from PCB film.
6. Use washing soda solution for raise exposed logo.
7. Then expose by UV light again (optional, I do that).
8. Etch Your logo usual way but don't slide felt pad over the PCB film just press it on place for few seconds several times.
9. For PCB film removal use few drops of acetone.
10. Clean Your blade from PCB film residuals.

I used for learning myself this video. Unfortunately in Russian language but clearly demonstrated.