Custom T-Shirt Stencils: Polycarbonate

Making custom t-shirt stencils is easy for CNCROi.com regardless of the design or material, today though, we’ll focus on 0.015″ (0.4 mm) thick masked polycarbonate.

We’ve made custom t-shirt stencils using materials such as plywood, paper, metal and acrylics.

When it comes to stencils, regardless of material, the same truths hold true, you need to support inner parts and you need to make sure that your material matches your application.

For instance, having custom t-shirt stencils made out of titanium (yes, CNCROi.com can cut one using that) would be a good waste of money because polycarbonate is not only transparent but also a fraction of the price so it’s by far a better value.

For this specific project, we made two custom t-shirt stencils, of course, what we ended-up cutting could have been anything, so you aren’t tied down to any specific font or style as long as things are well supported.

Little promotional stencils I make sometimes when I’m trying to get some very specific customers for CNCROi.com.

For these stencils, the esthetics don’t really matter as it’s for straight production but that being said, the masking on these comes right off and thus, turn completely optically clear once removed, which makes placement easy on the t-shirt or other clothing under it.

Using polycarbonate also has another major benefit, weight, it weighs close to nothing unlike our metal through wooden stencils.

And best of all, for larger custom t-shirt stencils especially, this material can be easily rolled-up for storage when not in use.

Metal stencils are produced using a variety of methods but they are always cool to make.

Polycarbonate is really one of my favorite stencil materials to work with because it’s easy maintenance but the only caveat is fire, in that case, the best options has to be stainless steel, which we can also cut to spec for you.

The major drawbacks to steel stencils, which we make a lot of, is that it’s incredibly rigid – which might be a good thing for your application – and crazy durable compared to polycarbonate.

You can literally use fire to burn in your stencil using stainless steel and then pressure wash it clean, two things you definitely cannot do with these custom t-shirt stencils made out of polycarbonate.

I use stencils myself at my house, there really are no limits to their wonderful use.

CNCROi.com‘s laser is incredibly precise, within 5 nanometers, and as such, what we digitally produce for you proof wise works 100% in the finished results though bridging is important as pixels don’t need them but real physical stencils do.

When it comes to custom stencil production, any volume works for us, whether you want one custom t-shirt stencil made by CNCROi.com or a thousand, no problem.

Stencils are great for both corporate and personal use, the material all depends on how many times you will use it and what onto which material.

When it comes to making custom stencils, sizing isn’t too much of an issue either, for very large ones, like those used to mark football fields, we generally make those out of plywood as rigidity is required and durability but we can also make them out of polycarbonate the size of your lunch box.

What I really enjoy about making custom stencils is the wide variety of materials and designs I get the honor to review and cut for customers, there are just so many options that CNCROi.com can provide to our customers.

Stencils can also be seasonally based, CNCROi.com has made tons for holidays such as Christmas or birthday parties or special events.

The bright light you see in these photos and the video showcasing custom t-shirt stencils cutting is the laser itself instantly vaporizing the polycarbonate below.

Below you can see the finished result, again, esthetics don’t matter but this is quickly cleaned-up as mentioned previously for these custom t-shirt stencils.

You can see below what the smoke looks like with polycarbonate on a clear piece of Lexan (also polycarbonate).

Need custom t-shirt stencils or stencils for any other use? Contact CNCROi.com right now!