Where can I make cheap custom cutouts for spray painting?
 

Hey guys as the title suggests i want to cut out some stuff on something durable to use as a stencil.

Say i want to make the nvidia logo and spray paint it onto my case

What material would i use and where could i get it done in the ***US***

Goto your local business supply store STAPELS or the like.
file folders
cut your stencils out of the thin cardboard.

or Dollar store and bristle board,

Will the thin cardboard be good for a stencil? I don't want any fibers causing an imperfect logo if you get what I mean.

By file folders, you mean make the stencil out of file folders?

Will Staples do the cutting for me, and is it affordable?

I use bristol board from dolarama, and use a hobby knife to cut my designs out.. I normally either draw them out, or print them out from on line, then serculey tape it on the bristol board, then cut them out.

As long as you make the cuts clean, theres no problem. Also, paint goes a long way, as long as you dont coat the thing too much, you wont have any leakage/drip problems. Another way around this is to never paint vertically. lol

Not painting vertically is good advice if your a novice. Use a temporary spray tack on the side of the board you plan to attach to the case. Use a flat clear coat to spray around the edges, let it dry then apply the colour(s) you want. That should ensure a nice clean line.

Use two or three coats of paint rather than one or two heavy coats.

Edit: You might want to brush the clear coat on to make sure is seals off the edges properly.

If you are looking for a service to cut you a stencil, just google "custom stencils" and you will come up with a lot of places. Most of them require you to request a quote, but expect it to be $50+ for a standard laser cut mylar stencil.

If you are doing a stencil small enough to fit on a piece of paper, just print it out on photo paper and cut it out with an exacto knife. If you need to do a large stencil you can use a free online service like blockposters.com to split an image into 8.5x11 sections, print those out and tape/glue them to a piece of posterboard/bristolboard and then use an exacto knife to cut it out.

Ok. I will ask the guy at Staples what kinda material to use as a cutout. I would X-Acto the design but I really want a super clean cut and I usually go for edgy and intricate designs.

What does painting vertically do?

vertical, paint will usually run a bit especially if you use to thick a coat. You could also just use a good painters tape, guys who do motorcycles pinlines and such use this, and thier "work" is by far exteremely precise. You could also go to walmart, they sell cutting boards made of very tough see through plastic they are 2 in a pack for like $7 this way here you can get a reusable stencil if you so desire. But cardboard or bristle board works very well.

A hard thin plastic about 1/32" thick, would be the best material for making a re-usable stencil. This type of material can be cleaned. And will produce a better edge than bristol board. I have also used .015" or .010" brass shim stock for stencils. These could be cleaned with a thinners and still cut with an exacto knife.