Stencil Developing with lots of pictures

M

Mike Fennessy

Joined
Dec 19, 2005
Messages
326
In case anyone wants a better idea of what it takes to develop stencils here's a real quick overview of how I do it.

Print out onto transparencies whatever you want to etch. I cover the whole sheet with different fonts and sizes of whatever I might want to etch in the future and just keep the sheets in the shop. I put the transparencies over the knife and find the size I want.

CIMG0872.jpg


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Then cut it out and put it on top of the stencil material that you cut to fit your knife and put both of them between two sheets of glass. I have black duct tape behind to keep light out of the back cause it seemed like the right thing to do, but probably doesn't make a difference.

Any stencil material that does not have light shining on it because the light is being blocked by the printed material will get eaten away by the developer and will allow the electricity to pass through when you do your etching. I think of it as the light hardens the stencil material when it hits it. The stuff hidden behind the printing stays soft and gets eaten away.

I turn off the lights and use a red headlamp when cutting out and positioning the stencil material because it is light sensitive.

CIMG0878.jpg
 
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Then I hang it from my fancy stencil developing glass holder, which is more duct tape that I keep wrapped around one of my shop lights.

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After eight minutes (for me and with these lights) I take it down, peel off the clear plastic that's on both sides and put it in a cup of the developer for three minutes (again, for me with these lights) swishing it around every now and then.. I went through quite a few stencils with different lights and using the sun till I found the right combination. Some of those didn't turn out cause I wasn't removing the clear plastic that I'm sure the instructions probably told me to do if I had read them.

CIMG0923.jpg
 
Mike, that's kind of cool. Where do you get your stencil material? I'd like to make some!
 
Here's a picture that I really wish had turned out better. You know the exposure and developing worked if you see the white mesh everywhere you want to be etched.

CIMG0902.jpg



Here's my etcher, built from Chris Crawford's plans I believe. I switched it to 12V though so I didn't have to be so careful about burning stencils. Takes a little longer though. I labeled it 'Remove' and 'Darken' so I wouldn't have to remember which one AC does and which one DC does.

CIMG0896.jpg
 
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medicevans: here's some info form the post that lead to this one.

I'm not positive where I got mine from but here is the material and developer from Mickey:

http://www.usaknifemaker.com/stencil...11-p-2878.html
http://www.usaknifemaker.com/stencil...rt-p-2879.html

Looks like he's out now. I'll probably wait to get more form him since there's always something else I want to be ordering form him anyway.

I might have gotten it from etchomatic. It would be the 'Unexposed Dura-Film Stencils' and 'Stencil Developer' that's about 3/4 of the way down this: http://www.etch-o-matic.com/price-list.htm
 
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Here's the finished etch. You can see how much detail you can get at that size. That's a .22 shell in case that's not obvious.

CIMG0910.jpg
 
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