Sometimes you do things just for fun...

I saw the skeleton tables in the Neff book, and decided to make a pair for myself for Halloween shows. It's not easy working with a hand cut stencil as large as the one I made, so there is a bit of overspray, but these will be for stage use, so I'm happy.

These are just the fronts, which will be paired as bi-folding stands. I have not made the tops or added any hardware yet.

Now those are gonna look great for your Halloween shows. Makes me wanna go into show business!!

Ans I love the skeletons too. They look like they've got their hands up for a hold up.

Ha-ha! Without the top, they do look like it's a stick-up. They will actually be holding the tray top. Cheap labor!

Reminds me in an offhand way of Homer Hudson's Imp Tables. Very nice. Cant wait to see em holding something up.

Great.

Michael,

Very nice looking job. When I first saw these I too said, Wow! I am going to cut a screen to print mine. Just got about five projects ahead of these. how do you find all the time to create such nice pieces?

Doc

Great job Michael Baker as usual. You could have the kind do a bean bag (bones) toss throught he legs.

I have the pattern for some tri-Dragon tables, just never got around to cutting them out. The hard part is all the different stencil work needed for them to come alive in full color.

The stencil was made by starting with the design printed small on a single sheet. Then I scaled that image with graph lines as if it was a map of something 36" high. Then I sectioned it as 6" high segments and printed each out on card stock. Some levels I could fit the entire image on a single sheet, others require two (as a left and right segment).

Once finished, I taped them all together like a large jigsaw puzzle. This gave me the full image of a 36" skeleton. I attached this to a board, and cut out the stencil. I knew the height and width of the panels, so they were cut rectangular, the stencils then used to lightly spray the image on those panels. This gave me a guide to mark off each panel for cutting, which I did.

They were sanded, and painted black. Then, the stencils were laid on again and sprayed white. This time, I used a stencil adhesive to seal it down better, but considering the entire stencil was made up of several smaller sections of paper taped together, it has small issues about laying perfectly flat. That caused some of the overspray, which as I said is ok for my use, and excusable for a stage prop.

What I may do, is use this stencil to mark and cut another one on a better material, If only to make something that will last longer. I have already had several people tell me they want one if I decide to make them commercially. I don't have the room for that at this time, but may consider it in the future.

Tabby, if you have a photo of the Hudson imp table, I'd like to see it. Never heard of it.

Dr. Solar, where do I find the time? By robbing myself of sleep. Honestly, I got a wild hair, and stayed up all one night cutting the stencil. I'm lucky I still have all my fingers.

Bill, I bet those dragon tables will be very nice!

So, does anyone know who made skeleton tables originally? I figured it might have been Abbott's, but I didn't see anything in their older catalogs. Nothing in Thayer, either, but the Thayer website shows one painted by Tommy Windsor, full color, and much more elaborate than mine.

I know FAB Magic Company started making some recently, but it's hard to tell much from the photo on their website. I think their's are single front, whereas mine are bi-fold.

Michael, I might be able to find one. It was pre-diggy age but prints someplace of me, Homer and the Imp Table. Homer worked for Thayer in the olde days. Im very happy to have known him. When I was traveling I would seek out people like Homer because I admired them and their work so much.

Will try to remember to look through those cigar boxes of pics tonight. I cant remember if I put that pic in Tabman Magic or not. If I didn't I should have.

If my knowledge is good, Homer Hudson silk screened the props he made. I have one of his Vampire Blocks, and it appears to be silk screen work. That would be the ideal way to make these skeleton tables, but I don't have the equipment to do that.

I really still need to experiment more with stencils. I have only done a 2-color stencil job a couple of times. They were alright, but I wish I could do work as nice Warren Hamilton's beautiful multi-color dragons.

Michael, these are great, and I’ll bet the tables will look awesome.

And thanks for the idea about joining smaller cardstock for the stencil. I could only think “butcher paper” for something like this. I’ve had this idea for a sort of 3D twisting pyramid for quite a while, but lacked the “courage to commit”. Maybe I’ll go out there and start playing around with it now.

Michael,once again,nice work!
For large stencils,you should try and contact somebody who works in an architectural drawing office.They use printers that can chuck out 2'x3' copies.
If you can get hold of sheets of acetate,they could print straight onto them,then just put the spray mount to the back of the acetate after you've cut out the design and you're ready to go.
Cheers,Ray.

Nice job. If you use acetate for stencils, you can pick up a stencil cutter at Pat Cattans. Works like a wood burner pen but has a small hooked tip. Melts right through the plastic. Put a piece of glass under the acetate first.
Ray

Great advice from all. I've made smaller stencils on acetate sheets, but limited to 8.5"x11" (transparency film). I've been able to print those on the computer, and score them with an X-acto knife. Acetate is better than paper for intricate designs (paper tears easily), but any blade that is less than 100% sharp will cause the plastic to warp a bit in delicate areas.

This shows some flower stencils I did via that method. For reference, the flowers are about 1.5" tall. That was some tiny cutting!



I was not aware of the stencil cutter. I'll check into that. I would assume acetate sheets can be bought in different thicknesses? For a stencil as large as the skeletons, I doubt the thin stuff I'm familiar with would hold up any better.

One problem I noticed with the small acetate stencils, is that repeated coats of paint cause the stencil to curl, I'm guessing from the paint drawing up as it cures.

I had even thought about transferring the skeleton image onto something hard, like a sheet of 1/8" Baltic Birch. It could be cut, but also adding in some "bridges" to strengthen potentially fragile areas. This could then be used to make temporaries on contractor's paper (which already has a thousand and one uses in my shop). Of course, I'd still have to cut each new stencil, but the contractor's paper would be easier to cut than overlapped pieces of card stock.

Years ago, I made my stencils from file folders. They worked great, but like everything delicate, they don't last forever.

It's also a pain waiting for the paint on the stencil to dry so it can be reused. After several uses in a row, it takes longer for the stencil to dry than the prop.

I've learned recently that there seems to be a tendency for some here to eschew (gesundheit!) modern technology for the seemingly revered horse-and-buggy era techniques (though I'll bet most of you have cell phones).

That said, when I want to make large stencils I simply put a piece of poster board into a 36" x 24" CO2 laser engraver and burn the pattern in. Having a kerf of less than .005", and being digitally balls-on accurate, it's pretty much a snap to burn as many identical copies as needed in just minutes. Since I also do the programming, I can scale, distort and otherwise manipulate a design to my heart's content, knowing that WYSIWYG.

Oh yes, I can hear the whining now: "But I don't have a large CO2 laser...". No, probably not. But unless you live in BFE - think Tabman - you almost certainly have a business somewhere nearby that does have a large format laser. Typically these are used by trophy shops and souvenir manufacturers, and most of the shops of that nature that I've done programming for are pretty open to taking in outside work for their machines.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it in case anybody wanted to know an easy modern solution...

TW

TW,

Even though you seem to lack in the social ettiquette department, you make up for it with knowledge, and some pretty good advice for the most part.

Now that I think about it, I probably know someone in this kind of business. I will pop in and ask them the next time I am in their area.

Thanks!

Looks like they are now popular...
http://www.fairchildmagic.com/fairchild_magic_089.htm

Here is a link to the oldest stencil company in the biz.

http://www.daytonstencil.com/

These guys are the ones many printers send work to.

The Wright Brothers used these guys.

The work I had them do was top notch and affordable. The can laser cut stencils. The also make rubber stamps and signs as well.

Not BFE but BFG!!

Can you read the names on the stern of my boat???

I thought the best stencil material was a heavy coated card stock, very stiff, I think some paper binder folders come with this type of card stock. We have a teachers supply store locally, and they carry every type of art paper and card stock known, drawers and drawers of giant sheets. Sorry I cannot think of the name of the card most commonly used for stencils.

I do know that 3M Spray Ment is the best suggested product to use as a temporary solution to hold down stencils. You only spray a light coating the back of the stencil.

When I wanted a large print of an item, I went to a instant print shop, I know they are getting harder to find, but if they are good they have a projection copier of sorts and can print it out to size. They may also have a large format printer as well. Then just put it on the cardboard and start cutting out.

A couple of times, I went to 3 different large printer companies and they just do not want to do small jobs. They want the corporate big buck jobs only.

If they have a small home stencil cutter on the market like the Cricket, then I am sure they have large format stencil cutters used by some businesses.

If anyone know of what kind of business please let me know as a 3 or 4 color Dragon would take a lot of cutting time.