Hey everyone, I am looking for a service (in the EU) that offers custom die cut templates (is that the right word?) such as the one pictured above.

Does anyone have recommendations?

For the curious: It says “Parents vote for their children” and is an allusion to the omnipreset “Parents are liable for their children” signs on German construction sites.

  • Fondots@lemmy.world
    9·
    1 day ago

    A better term for what you’re looking for might be “stencil”

    I don’t have any specific recommendations for companies, especially in the EU, I feel like a lot of print shops and sign companies could probably do it for you. If you want to DIY it, you could probably pick up some generic letter stencils from almost any hardware store to trace onto something and cut out yourself. Depending on what material you want it made out of you could probably get anyone with a cricut or similar machine to make one for you if your ok with something like paper or vinyl, or if you for some reason wanted it made out of metal or something else sturdier that a cricut could manage you could try asking around to local machine shops.

    • einkorn@feddit.orgOP
      3·
      1 day ago

      print shops and sign companies

      Thought so too but both shops I use frequently don’t offer this

      cut out yourself.

      Certainly a possibility but I want to give them away so it would take a lot of time to make multiple.

      I might try to 3d print the stencil if all else fails.

          • scrion@lemmy.world
            2·
            22 hours ago

            Okay, if this is going to be a whole project you probably want a commercial supplier. Based on your geo-preference, one recommendation would be Formulor:

            https://www.formulor.de/material/mylar

            You can upload your own SVGs for laser cutting and engraving, the whole process is rather automated. They offer templates for Inkscape or whatever the matching, closed-source Adobe product is (Illustrator maybe?)

            I linked the mylar material since that would be my recommendation for stencils used for e. g. painting, spraying etc. Mylar hits an excellent balance between cost, handling and durability.

            Formulor is probably not the cheapest supplier, but it’s reliable and instant with no customer support agents involved and requires no quotes and approvals being sent back and forth.

      • Fondots@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 day ago

        I feel like 3d printing would probably be slower than just cutting them out by hand with an xacto knife, you can get a pretty good rhythm going and depending on what material you make it out of you can probably cut a few of them out at a time.

        Also feels like a bit of a waste to make them out of plastic since it’s something most people would probably only use a couple of times then throw away, and even if you make it out of a recyclable plastic they probably couldn’t be recycled with paint residue (not even gonna touch on the plastic recycling debate right now)

        I’d probably try calling around to a couple more print shops and such, maybe some art studios and maker spaces. May also be worth thinking outside the box, the maintenance department of some businesses might have a stencil cutter to stencil things onto their equipment, schools might have them (my mom worked in an elementary school, it wasn’t exactly a stencil maker, but they had a tool for cutting letters out of paper for art projects and such that might work for your purposes)

        Short of a dedicated stencil maker (which is pretty pricey) a cricut or similar machine is probably your best bet. They’re not too pricey if you wanted to get one yourself, and don’t know what the arts and crafts scene is like in the EU but I feel like every artsy person in the US went nuts for them a couple years ago and most of the bigger arts and crafts stores around here have a whole aisle dedicated to them (much to my chagrin because they got rid of some other stuff I occasionally need to make room for them) so if you ask around you might be able to find someone who will let you use theirs.

        It may also help to rephrase what you’re looking for, especially if you’ve been asking for die-cut templates. You might have better luck asking for stencils, or maybe asking if they have a cricut or vinyl cutter, or maybe even a laser cutter and just providing the file for them to cut out. There’s a chance the employees just aren’t really thinking about what their equipment can do and just know that they don’t have a specific stencil making machine.

  • Bobby Turkalino
    3·
    1 day ago

    Check if there is a library or Makerspace near you that has a Cricut machine you can use