Rum Barrel Branding: Polycarbonate Stencil
When it comes to rum barrel branding, polycarbonate and metal stencils made by CNCROi.com is the way to go!
For this specific blog post, we’ll focus on polycarbonate stencils made for, in this case, rum barrel branding as the application will entail using spray paint so there is no fire or heating issues to contend with.
Of course, if you wish to use a propane torch for your barrel branding purposes, CNCROi.com can make them for you using stainless steel (if you care about rusting) or mild steel, though the stainless steel is by far the most popular.
If you are wondering why using a propane torch on polycarbonate is a bad idea, consider polycarbonate is plastic which is made from oil… not something you wish to put a flame to unless you have your insurance topped-up for your business and looking to retire.
As with all stencils CNCROi.com makes, the same things do apply whether you go with a barrel branding using metal or plastic (or wood), that is, you need to have support or bridge material to hold inside parts and there are certain size limitations (small wise) that might not work at scale.
Plywood shouldn’t be discounted when it comes to BIG stencils, it’s far more cost-effective than metal both in raw material and shipping and is pretty durable as well.
Of course, if you have any questions as to what’s possible for your barrel branding requirements, just contact us and send CNCROi.com your design file, we’ll have a look and let you know what modifications are required.
As for design files, we require a vector for sharp images to be cut out, your fonts outlined and all your images black and white as we use that for our cut lines, grayscale and color serve no purpose for making barrel branding stencils.
For instance, you’ll notice on this rum barrel branding stencil that the R is cut-up with support material to hold the inside part, same goes with the O, P and A… the same holds true for numbers as well, such as 8, 6 and 9 for instance.
Polycarbonate is a great material for stencils, but plywood through MDF is also great, it all depends on your design and intended application.
When it comes to repeatability and accuracy, our laser (or waterjet or plasma or router) all have accurate cutting capacity in the nanometers, so making one stencil or a thousand will all be as identical as your design outlines, any variations are generally caused by material selection.
What I really enjoy about making custom barrel branding stencils at CNCROi.com is the diversity of designs our customers have using basically the same circular constraint.
Generally our metal stencils are made using 304 stainless steel but aluminium through titanium is also available as is the cutting process, waterjet to plasma cutting by CNCROi.com.
Polycarbonate has a lot of advantages over metal when it comes to making customer spray painted stencils, the biggest is you can see through it so placement is PERFECT due to transparency and being literally bullet proof glass, it’s incredibly strong and durable.
The advantage of metal barrel stencils is primarily strength but using stainless steel specifically means you can power wash it without worrying about damaging it, something technically you can do with polycarbonate but I’d suggest that you don’t do it as you can bend the polycarbonate depending on the design.
When it comes to barrel branding, a propane torch on wooden barrels looks great and it’s actually a pretty efficient system that’s permanent, unlike spray paint.
One thing to consider if you are wondering about saving a little money using aluminium or mild steel, corrosion, you will get flash rusting on the mild steel and if you live next to the ocean, corrosion will be a constant issue not just on the surface but also the edges where CNCROi.com cut out your words, images and outlines.
So, in the short to long run, stainless steel is really the best choice forward for metal stencils, titanium is neat too, but it’s very expensive and overkill in my opinion for most stencil production use by CNCROi.com‘s customers.
As you can see from this rum barrel branding stencil, you aren’t stuck using straight fonts or placements, they can be curved, mixed-up and overlapping so these most certainly aren’t the default stencils you buy at your local department store and they can be customized however you wish.
The advantage of using a laser to cut polycarbonate over waterjet is that it’s a far faster and cleaner process, and the advantage over the router is CNCROi.com can cut finer details without touching the material at hand.
For metal, CNCROi.com uses the waterjet because we don’t have to be worried about heat affected zones and thus can use a thinner gauge of stainless steel, additionally, the fine details aren’t possible using plasma.
After all the inside parts of this rum barrel branding polycarbonate stencil, it’s time for CNCROi.com to cut it out so that nothing moves and the entire sheet stays in one piece as long as possible during production for the most accurate production of this stencil.
The results look fantastic, again, this is going to be used with spray paint so the esthetics don’t matter, all the “burned polycarbonate yellowing” will be covered in the first use of this rum barrel branding stencil.
After all the scrap is taken off both around and inside this stencil, you can see how great this looks, everything is sharp and clear and the customer loves this!
Need a custom barrel branding stencil? Contact CNCROi.com right now!