I recently picked up a Glowforge Aura laser cutter/engraver, thanks to a smokin’ hot deal on Facebook Marketplace. It’s a small, entry level 5w diode laser. It does a great job for a great many things. It makes cutting things like MDF, basswood, paper, fiberboard, and even acrylic super easy. And overall the machine is well designed, the software good enough to be functional, and an all around fun experience.

One of the reasons I wanted a laser cutter to fill out my holy triad of maker tools (FDM 3D printer, resin 3D printer, laser cutter) was to be able to cut my own stencils. I’d seen the 1 Man Army stencils and wanted to do the same stuff for my own custom and often offbeat projects. Unlocking the stencil game is a way to make life much much easier for custom paint and marking jobs.

Obviously I wanted to use the Tamiya tape sheets as the material since we all know how great Tamiya tape is. So I put some in the machine and got to testing.

The simple version of this story is that I created some barely usable stencils that I used (poorly) on my Warrengas station project. I couldn’t figure out why they weren’t sticking like they should, at least around the edges. At one point I discovered some tiny balls of gummy adhesive. After some discussions with friends and online research, I hypothesized that my underpowered laser having to take multiple cuts was heating up the adhesive too much and melting it.

So I signed up for the local makerspace to get access to their 100w laser… one much, much more powerful than mine. And yep! That’s what it was! After a few test cuts, I figured out how to cut pretty small stencils with perfection!

(I will include a screenshot of my settings below, just for reference. It might be helpful for those of you using big laser cutters.)

The biggest realization

I am taking about “cutting” stencils, but in fact, the stencils are actually engraved! (Or by the big laser’s terms, “rasterized”) Meaning that the laser is basically burning off and disappearing the material, not just cutting it. If it was cutting it, I’d have to “weed” it after cutting to remove the parts that I want to use to paint. (Yes, “weed” is the standard term)

And with the right power+speed settings, the two main things you do with the laser, I could engrave away the stencil designs AND leave the backing totally untouched.

My tips and tricks

I will keep this post updated as I learn new things. But here’s a few things I’ve learned:

  • I will be engraving out a boundary box around any stencil I cut to make it easier to peel the stencil off the backing. When the edge of the backing material and the stencil material are flush it’s HARD to find a corner to peel.
  • Setting next to change for the size of the stencil. My perfect settings for a 12pt font stencil would engrave partially through a 4pt font stencil and did almost nothing on a 2pt font stencil.
  • Use something to weigh down (steel weight plates) or lock in (Bobby pins) the sheet material so it doesn’t flip up from the air ventilation systems while cutting.
  • MiG Ammo and Tamiya both sell sheets of kabuki/rice/washi/whatever tape. They are almost the same but not exactly the same. Settings will need to adjust accordingly.

More info and examples will be added to this post as I learn and practice and apply!