Text Stencil Hack

Stencils are a great way to make multiple copies of text, like a slogan or business name. But when it comes to some letters, there is a problem. Since the image is being cut out of the base material, only the outlines of the letter remain. For letters like "Oo" "Bb" and "Pp" the center white space falls out, which makes it harder to read (see attached example).

There are stencil fonts that have been designed to have a connecting bridge to the center white space or to split the letter into multiple parts to eliminate unconnected regions. The standard "Stencil" font does this but it is only for capital letters.

What if you want to make a stencil with a different font? This instructable is about how to do that.

Materials

• Base material (cardboard, plywood, plastic sheet)
• Thin wire and wire cutters
• Cutting device to cut the stencil out with
• Glue, hot glue works great
• Marker (optional)
• Spray paint

For this example I will be using a laser cutter, but I will explain how to do this manually as well.

I'm going to make my stencil out of cardboard and use piano wire and hot glue to hold the stencil together. You can get piano wire at most hardware stores. Its great because even at very thin sizes its straight and doesn't bend easy. You will need good cutters to cut it. Other wires will work but if they bend too easily, your stencil may deform as its used.

If possible, use a thick base material so the wire holding the center parts of the letters is raised up and not resting on the surface the stencil is being applied to. This will allow the spray paint to go around it and not have the wire show up in the finished stencil.

Either by hand or on a computer, design your stencil. Using a computer illustration program (like Adobe Illustrator) can be really helpful here. It will allow you to use different fonts and if your cutting the stencil with a machine like a laser cutter, you can send the file to the cutter when your done designing.

This techniques works best with large, bold letters but if you patient and dexterous, you can use finer fonts or smaller letters. The trick is to convert the text to outlines and then make a guide to show where to place a thin piece of wire to hold the center piece in place.

In my example, I created the text and converted it to black outlines. Any black line will be cut by the laser. Then I drew a red line over the letter, making sure it crossed over the center white parts of the letters. I will set the laser to score (mark but not cut through) the red lines. Then I can use the scored lines (red) as a guide to place and glue the wire to hold the stencil together.

If your cutting by hand draw the guide in a different color than the cutting line and make sure to draw the guide before cutting the stencil out.

Once you have cut your stencil out, make sure to save all the pieces. Place all the parts of letters with center parts back into the stencil. Like a puzzle. Using the guides you made in the design phase, cut pieces of the wire and place them on the guides. Then glues the ends of the wire to the background of the stencil and to the center pieces of the letters. Don't glue the wire to the outer parts of the letter. You want the center to stay the outer part to come out.

Once the glue has set, you should be able to pick up the stencil and the outer parts of the letters will fall out and the glue and wire will keep the center parts in place.

Now its time to use the stencil. Lay the stencil on top of what ever you are copying the stencil to. Using spray paint, paint the stencil. If you spray form a few different angles the paint should go around the wire and fill in the whole area of the letters. You may have to practice a bit to find the best angels and amount of paint to use.

Happy stenciling.