How to make a custom metal stencil ?

Would you like to make a logo stencil for your company? Want to redecorate your room and use a stencilled motif to tag yourself? Creating a custom stencil may be the ideal solution! Easy to make, robust and infinitely re-usable, it means you can stamp your brand or your logo on anything. In the kitchen, a stainless steel stencil will help you decorate cakes in seconds. So what are you waiting for? Make your own! 😄

Why make a custom stencil?

If you need to reproduce a pattern several times over on something using paint, or you want to make smooth and consistent brand markings or logos, then a custom stencil is a simple, practical solution. When they are made of paper, plastic or cardboard, stencils have a limited lifespan. That’s why we are offering to make custom stencils for you out of much more durable metal. #metalrocks

Stencils have many uses:

• Interior design: bedroom, living room, bars, restaurants.
• Exterior signage: parking place markings, decoration of exterior furniture.
• Logo or brand markings on a product or wooden crate.
• Clean tags are an increasingly popular trend where people add their own temporary tags to the streets. These tags are made with water (high pressure) or chalk to respect the urban landscape.

[metaslider id= »9719″]

Examples of stencils made from metal

What material should I use for my custom stencil?

For this type of use, we advise you to go for a fairly lightweight material that is corrosion-resistant and isn’t too thick so the stencil is easy to use.

➡️ Stainless steel or aluminium, let your imagination take flight with our best metal sheets!

How to make your stencil online 🧐

You have 2 options depending on your needs. Either use our amazing online configurator to laser cut your design or send us a DXF file which you can make on our site.

🔰 Configure my custom text stencil (it’s easy peasy)

1. Go to john-steel.com and select your material and thickness
2. Preferably, you want to choose a « Rectangle » base that is larger than your stencil (you need to make sure there is a metal border surrounding your text)
3. Enter the desired text, choose the font and the text height
4. Position your text in the middle of the stencil

And there you have it, an amazing metal stencil made with our online configurator!

With a metal letter stencil, you can make your own custom message!

Make my custom stencil!

🔰 Import your stencil in DXF format

There are two ways you can create a stencil using the DXF format:

• You can use an existing image and convert it to the right format.
• You can create your own custom creation using technical design software if you’re good at that (AutoCAD or LivreCAD for example).

Step one! Create a DXF file containing the design for your dream stencil.

For example this very romantic heart ⤵️

But please be aware that when making a stencil, you can’t just simply draw a heart (or you will just receive a sheet metal cutout of the shape you chose). It might be nice, but it’s not really what you’re after, is it?

To avoid this mishap, you need to draw this shape inside something like a rectangle or another shape so that this will form the stencil with your desired shape as the cutout in the middle.

This heart is very nice but what do we get when we put both through the design software? You can already see where I’m going with this 😬

Here’s the difference between the two files:

Rendering of the simple heart cutout using a DXF file

Rendering of the heart with an external frame to create a stunning custom stencil. Budding artists or home designers can make a custom metal stencil to infinitely improve the quality of their logo or text 💫

See you soon,

Brigitte