Stencil FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I consider Stencils Online?
What type of payment do you accept?
What does a stencil cost?
How long does it take to get an estimate?
What type of material is the stencil cut on?
Why Polyester (Mylar)?
How do I use the stencils?
What are your limitations for stencil cutting?
What size fonts can you cut?
Can you use different stencil fonts that those listed on your web site?
Will I receive a proof?
How long will it take to get my stencil?
How are the stencils shipped?
How are the stencils packaged for shipment?
How long will a stencil last?
Do you offer refunds or a money back guarantee?
What if I decide to cancel my order?
What is your policy on copyright and privacy of artwork?
How do I submit a graphic?
What if I don’t have a graphic?

Why should I consider Stencils Online?

From our small beginnings, we had an idea to offer a service to provide custom stencils to individuals, decorators and businesses. When we started, we had no idea that the service we would provide would be as greatly accepted as it is. We are proud to be the largest US manufacturer of laser cut custom stencils. Being the humble leader in this small niche allows us to offer many things to our customers. We have the experience to cut stencils. We know stencils! This is all we do. We know the best materials to use, we know the best techniques to use, and, because of our volume, we have the best prices.

Our programmers exclusively program stencils and our lasers are all custom designed and manufactured to cut stencils.

Our growing list of satisfied customers is our pride and we hope that we can prove ourselves to you.

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What type of payment do you accept?

We accept Visa, Master Card and American Express. You can also prepay your order with a personal check, company check or money order. Your order will be shipped after we receive your payment. We're sorry but we do not accept COD's.

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What do stencils cost?

Because every stencil created is unique, we do not have any standard pricing. We do have forms on our web site that can instantly calculate a Industrial Letter Stencil and a Decorative Letter Stencil.

If you have specific requirements for your stencil that do not relate to these forms, please fill out our Stencil Quote Request Form. This form sends your information to our programmers who can calculate a price for you.
We do not have an instant calculator form for graphic stencils. There are many variables that we look at when we calculate a price for graphic stencils. Each graphic must be reviewed by our programming department for pricing. You can submit your graphic and other information through our Graphic Quote Request Form. The price for a custom graphic stencil starts at $40.00.

We have forms on our web site that instantly calculate many types of lettering stencils. You can get an instant quote by using our Quote Wizards (Decorative Quote Wizard and Industrial Quote Wizard).

For quotes on graphic stencils and lettering stencils that cannot be calculated online, you will need to fill out our Quote Form. This is the quickest way to get essential information to us for a quote. Once we receive your information we will get back to you with pricing the same business day. Most requests for pricing are answered within a half hour during our working day. We understand that you are eager to receive your quote on a custom stencil and answer requests for pricing as quickly as possible.
We always love to hear from our customers and we are happy to answer any questions about our products and services by email, fax or phone. But please keep in mind that our customer service representatives do not have the tools to answer any questions about pricing. It is much easier for us if you request pricing via email, our request forms or fax. We appreciate your understanding.

Most of our materials for custom stencils are polyester film (Mylar). We have laser cut many different materials to find the perfect product and we find that the polyester film works the best! The most commonly used types of mylar are:

5 mil hazy white. A thin yet flexible plastic, perfect for decorating stencils and very fine detail. Many premium decorating stencils which are available in craft and art supply stores are made of this material.
7 mil translucent blue or white. A medium weight material as thick as card stock. This material is thin enough to achieve outstanding detail when stenciling, yet strong enough to clean and use many many times. All of our pre-made alphabet stencils and, unless otherwise requested, all of our decorative lettering stencils are made from this material.
10 mil white. This material is a standard material used for our industrial stencils. It is tear-resistant yet flexible. It can be cleaned easily to provide a very long life. Customers who buy this material use their stencils for shipping crates, tool/equipment marking, floors/parking areas, and many other industrial applications.
14 mil white. This is the thickest of our polyester material and it is truly a "work horse" for a durable stencil. The 14 mil polyester holds many strength advantages over any other plastic material we have ever used.
We do stock thicker and more rigid plastics, however our polyester materials, listed above, are usually the best choice for stencils.
We do not cut any type of metal.

How strong is it?
How easily can it be cleaned?
Will it achieve crisp stenciling results?

Polyester is quite strong. It has the ability to be rolled very tightly and it will always bounce back to its flat shape. If you take a square sheet of polyester, even the thinnest 5 mil, you will not be able to tear it using your hands.

The secret to a long stencil life is the ability to clean paint or ink off your stencil. Polyester is one of the very few plastic materials that is solvent proof. You can clean your stencil with paint remover, acetone (fingernail polish remover), turpentine/mineral spirits, or anything recommended to clean paint, and you won't damage the stencil material in any way.

All material in the polyester family is flexible. This is very important when you are stenciling because it can conform to curved surfaces as well as the subtle variations on flat services. This will provide a more crisp and professional look than you can achieve using a rigid stencil material.

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How do I use the stencils?

Step 1: Hold your stencil in place. Many people use masking tape or painters tape to hold the stencil in place. You may also wish to consider using a repositionable stencil adhesive. This is a light adhesive spray that you can apply to the back of your stencil. The adhesive will hold the entire back of the stencil to your surface instead of only the areas that are taped. The adhesive allows you to achieve outstanding results for creating a crisp stencil job. The adhesive will gradually wear off your stencil as you use it and, at this point, you need to spray the back of the stencil with adhesive again. The adhesive will not leave any residue or damage your stenciling surface. You can remove the adhesive with acetone or any product that removes adhesive. It is available at almost every craft supply or art supply store.

Step 2: Applying paint to a stencil is easy. If you are decorating or signmaking you may wish to consider using a dry stencil paint and a brush. These items are available at all craft supply stores and they give the user full control over creating a crisp stenciled finished product. There are many great paints available for decorative stenciling and we recommend you become familiar with these products by visiting a local craft supply store.

If you are using your stencils for a more industrial purpose, there are 3 common methods available: Spray - Brush - Roll

SPRAY: Spraying paint on a stencil can be very quick but you must use control. An airbrush or a lower powered paint sprayer are ideal because you can easily control the flow of paint and pressure. Using spray paint may be your choice because of its availability. If you decide to use spray paint, hold the spray paint can at least 10" from the stencil. Use a swift back and forth motion and always keep the spray can moving. You can go over areas that are faded until they are as filled as you would like them to be. Do not hold the can too close or stop the can in one place as this will allow the pressure of the paint to possibly run underneath the stencil.
BRUSH: Brushing paint on a stencil takes a bit more time but this allows you to have better control over paint. Any type of solid or liquid paint will work with our stencils. The key to achieving the best results using a brush and liquid paint is to make sure that there is not too much paint on your brush. Use only a little paint and work it into the tip of the brush before you paint through the stencil.
ROLL: Several paint and ink rollers are available for stenciling non-shiny surfaces. These are outstanding! If you plan to make industrial stenciling a frequent occurrence, you may wish to invest in an ink roller kit. If you plan to use paint instead of ink you can use a paint roller or a trim roller with a paint (roller) tray. These rollers are inexpensive and available everywhere. Most applications will require a trim roller, which is about 4" long, rather than a standard paint roller. To achieve the best results use minimal paint and really work the paint into the roller before touching the stencil with the roller.

The current maximum size of our laser cut stencils is 96" x 40". We have cut single letter characters up to 60" tall. For stencils over our maximum cutting area, we often cut stencils into several sections to create very large stencils. We do not recommend taping sections of stencils together; instead, we recommend you use each section separately if you are doing a large stencil project. We have many sizes of stock material for each of the mylar products we carry, so there is no "standard template size". Our business is custom stencils and we will cater to your requirements.

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What size fonts can you cut?

The largest letter size we can cut is approximately 46" tall. The smallest is approximately ¼". We can cut some basic typestyles as small as 1/8" but the typestyles and configurations are limited at this size.

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Can you use different fonts than those listed on your web site?

We can use almost any typestyle if you can provide us with artwork we can easily use. We can work with a TrueType font file that you provide to us or we can use a vector file that you have already converted to curves. You can email us to see if we have the typestyle you are looking for already available.

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Will I receive a proof?

We always provide a JPG proof via email before your stencil is cut. This proof is normally a reduced size and the actual stencil measurements are displayed at the bottom of the proof. You can make as many reasonable changes as you wish to the proof before we cut your stencil. We do not provide proofs unless we have a confirmed order, which includes your payment information.

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How long will it take to get my stencil?

We have streamlined the way we manufacture laser cut custom stencils. For standard industrial and decorative letter stencils, we try to provide a proof to you the same business day that you place your order.

Stencils are cut and shipped within 2 to 4 business days of your approval of the proof.
Graphic stencils may take a few days longer due to programming, depending on the work involved.
If you need your order by a certain date, please let us know and we will do everything we can to accommodate you.

All orders are shipped via Priority Mail or FedEx Ground unless otherwise specified.
The Standard Shipping rates are based on your order subtotal.
$0 to $20 = $4.95
$20 to $50 $5.95
$50 to $100 $6.95
$100 to $150 $7.95
$150 to $200 $8.95
We offer express shipping via FedEx. Their services include Priority Overnight, Standard Overnight, 2 day and 3 day. The prices for FedEx express shipping are charged at the FedEx published rate, available at www.fedex.com.
Please know that we cannot bill your shipment to your company's UPS or FedEx account number. Thank you for your understanding.

Most of our orders are packaged in paper or plastic and loosely rolled into shipping tubes to ensure no damage during transit.

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How long will a stencil last?

Many variables go into answering this question. The most important factor is how you take care of your stencil. The best way to ensure a long stencil life is to clean the paint off your stencil after you are finished. There is no need to clean the stencil so it looks new, you just need to keep paint from building up around the edges. Many of our customers have successfully used a single stencil for hundreds of applications.

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Do you offer refunds or a money back guarantee?

Because our stencils are made to order we do not offer a money back guarantee. We strive to achieve 100% customer satisfaction and if there is a problem with any of our custom stencils, we will do whatever it takes to work with you and make your stencil work for your project. If you are unsure if using a stencil is the best approach for your project, contact us and discuss your application with the professionals first.

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What if I decide to cancel my order?

You can request a refund for your order before your stencil is cut if you change your mind. In some situations where our programming time has been used to create your proof, we require a small fee for the programming work that we have already preformed. You may wish to contact us before you place your order if you have any reservations about your purchase decision.

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What is your policy on copyright and privacy of artwork?

If you place an order with us, or even contact us for a quote or questions, you have our guarantee that your information will not be given out to anyone, ever! Every aspect of our customers' information is secured by the most enhanced security measures we can afford. Although not one of our customer's confidentiality has never ever been breached, we continue to make security an ongoing commitment.

If there is ever a reasonable conflict between you and any of our other customers, we will contact you to discuss the issue.

Because we cannot possibly be aware of every single piece of copyrighted artwork, we rely on our customers to use their best judgment before submitting unoriginal artwork. Think about how you will be using your stencil: is it appropriate to use someone else's artwork for this purpose?

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How do I submit a graphic?

We can accept a graphic from you in many forms. The quality of the graphic often determines how much work we have to do to program your stencil and thus is a factor in pricing.

The best type of graphic we can receive is a vector file
- Adobe Illustrator EPS
- Corel Draw
We also have great luck with DXF, DWG and WMF type files.
If none of these file types are available, we can also work with BMP and TIFF files. These file types tend to be large so you can convert them to black and white and save them at no more than 300 DPI.
We can also work with most JPG or GIF files if they are of a high enough resolution. Often, however, JPG and GIF files that are copied from a web page do not have the best resolution and we may have a difficult time converting the artwork.
Many people send us graphic files in Word DOC files. Because these graphics can be of any quality, we need to review the Word file before we can determine if the artwork is usable.

FAXING ARTWORK: Faxed images are a great way for us to get a price to you, but the fuzzy lines that make up faxed images can cause a problem when we actually create your stencil. If you fax your graphic for pricing, please let us know what other type of artwork you can provide if you wish to go ahead with an order.

STANDARD MAIL: If you decide to mail us a copy of your artwork, we can review it and get back to you with our best quote. When preparing your copy to send via mail, keep in mind the best type of line drawing we work with is thin, black pen on white or tracing paper. We do not suggest using pencil, marker or lined (graph) paper for your artwork. Please include a contact name, phone number, email address and/or fax number when you mail us your artwork, and make sure these items are legible.

ZIP FILES: We can open Zip files and Stuffed files, but because of possible computer viruses, we will not open any file that is not a common file type.

You can contact us if you have questions about what other file types we can open or if you have further questions about our graphic file policies.

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What if I don't have a graphic?

As a creator of custom stencils, we do not have a catalog of designs to choose from. We work with text and graphics that are submitted to us by our customers. Our programmers are the best in the industry at creating a stencil from almost any type of graphic that we receive. We do not, however, offer a service where we find artwork based on a written description.

If you would like to order a custom stencil but you do not have any artwork, please understand that we would love to work with you, but we do not do graphic design. We need you to provide artwork that we can work from.